{"id":802742,"date":"2026-07-15T04:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/802742\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:01:12","slug":"mirra-andreevas-sister-erika-lands-breakthrough-win-after-revealing-difficult-mental-health-battle-international-sports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/802742\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirra Andreeva\u2019s sister Erika lands breakthrough win after revealing difficult mental health battle | International Sports News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MirraMirra Andreeva\u2019s sister Erika lands breakthrough win after revealing difficult mental health battle (Image via Getty) Erika Andreeva is finally seeing positive results after one of the toughest periods of her career. The 21-year-old Russian produced an impressive performance at the WTA 125 event in Kitzbuhel, beating eighth seed Despina Papamichail 6-1, 6-2 in the opening round. The win comes more than a year after Erika stepped away from tennis because of serious mental health struggles that left her questioning both her career and herself. While younger sister Mirra Andreeva has been enjoying success at the top level, Erika has been quietly working her way back. Her latest victory not only showed her progress on court but also highlighted how far she has come since that difficult period.<\/p>\n

Erika Andreeva earns one of the biggest wins of her season in Kitzbuhel<\/p>\n

Erika looked in complete control against Greece\u2019s Despina Papamichail, who came into the tournament as the eighth seed. From the first few games, the Russian dictated the match and never allowed her opponent to settle.Papamichail struggled badly on serve, committing four double faults and winning only 47% of first-serve points and 25% of second-serve points. Erika took full advantage, breaking serve six times on her way to a comfortable straight-set victory.The result is particularly important because Erika has played only a handful of WTA tournaments this season. It was just her third main-draw win of 2026 and another sign that her confidence is gradually returning.Before Kitzbuhel, her most notable result this year came during Wimbledon qualifying, where she defeated China\u2019s YeXin Ma 6-0, 6-3 before losing to American player Kayla Day in the next round.Erika\u2019s ranking has also moved in the right direction. After falling to No. 362 in February, she has climbed back to around No. 231. The rise reflects months of work across both WTA and ITF events as she tried to rebuild her game and fitness.<\/p>\n

Erika Andreeva opens up about mental health struggles and support from Mirra Andreeva<\/p>\n

Erika\u2019s road back has not been easy. Speaking to the WTA in June, she revealed that her struggles during 2025 went far beyond results on the court.After reaching a career-high ranking of No. 65 in 2024, her form dropped sharply the following year. A first-round loss in Wimbledon qualifying became the breaking point. That defeat was her ninth straight loss, and soon after, she stepped away from tennis for four months.Reflecting on that period, Erika told the WTA: \u201cI wasn\u2019t mentally in the right place. I was devastated by the Wimbledon loss. At that point, I didn\u2019t enjoy to play. I didn\u2019t feel myself on court at all. I didn\u2019t know what to do. Only to break, and to see if I will want to play again or not. First month, I didn\u2019t play, I didn\u2019t do anything at all.\u201dShe also spoke honestly about how badly her confidence had fallen.\u201cI felt like I\u2019m not good enough, I\u2019m not doing well enough, how I\u2019m supposed to do. I put myself below the bottom that I\u2019m s*** as a player, s*** as a person, I don\u2019t deserve anything,\u201d Erika said.Since returning, she has slowly rebuilt her career. She has split her time between WTA and ITF tournaments and focused on finding consistency again.Throughout that journey, she has remained close to Mirra Andreeva. Speaking about her younger sister\u2019s French Open title, Erika said she was proud because she understands the challenges Mirra faces away from public view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mirra Andreeva\u2019s sister Erika lands breakthrough win after revealing difficult mental health battle (Image via Getty) Erika Andreeva…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,114670,154725,282529,282528,265789,30435,82,593,262216,282527,4306],"class_list":["post-802742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-erika-andreeva","tag-itf-tournaments","tag-kitzbuhel","tag-mental-health-in-sports","tag-mental-health-struggles","tag-mirra-andreeva","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-comeback","tag-wimbledon-qualifying","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}