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Mirra Andreeva’s place in the WTA Finals seemed a sure thing earlier this year…

When Andreeva won the Dubai Tennis Championships and Indian Wells back-to-back, she rose to number three in the ‘Live WTA Race’.

She looked set to qualify for her maiden WTA Finals, barring a drastic drop in form.

An outside view of the King Saud University Indoor Arena at the 2024 WTA FinalsPhoto by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Unfortunately for Andreeva, that’s exactly what happened, as she began to struggle, especially after the clay-court season finished.

Losing her opening matches in Wuhan and Ningbo, the Russian’s WTA Finals hopes hung by a thread.

When Elena Rybakina advanced to the semifinals in Tokyo, she confirmed her place in Riyadh at the expense of Andreeva.

Winning two WTA 1000 titles and failing to qualify for the year-end finals, Andreeva matched an unwanted record in 2025.

Mirra Andreeva becomes the first player to win two WTA 1000s and not qualify for WTA Finals in nine years

Andreeva has missed out on WTA Finals qualification by six points, with Jasmine Paolini now occupying the final spot.

RankNameCountryPoints2025 WTA 1000 titlesStatus1Aryna SabalenkaBelarus9,9902 (Miami Open, Madrid Open)Qualified2Iga SwiatekPoland8,3031 (Cincinnati Open)Qualified3Coco GauffUSA6,5731 (Wuhan Open)Qualified4Amanda AnisimovaUSA5,8972 (Qatar Open, China Open)Qualified5Jessica PegulaUSA5,183–Qualified6Madison KeysUSA4,395–Qualified7Elena RybakinaKazakhstan4,350–Qualified8Jasmine PaoliniItaly4,3251 (Italian Open)Qualified9Mirra AndreevaRussia4,3192 (Dubai Tennis Championships, Indian Wells)Failed to qualify10Ekaterina AlexandrovaRussia3,375–Failed to qualifyTop ten in the Live WTA Race

The last player to win multiple WTA 1000 titles in a year and fail to qualify for the WTA Finals was Victoria Azarenka in 2016.

Victoria Azarenka celebrates with the Miami Open title in 2016Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

However, the circumstances around Azarenka’s 2016 season were very different, as she finished her season early, announcing her pregnancy in July.

RankNameCountryPoints2016 WTA 1000 titlesStatus1Angelique KerberGermany8,000–Qualified2Serena WilliamsUSA7,0501 (Italian Open)Qualified3Agnieszka RadwanskaPoland4,9751 (China Open)Qualified4Simona HalepRomania4,7282 (Madrid Open, Canadian Open)Qualified5Karolina PliskovaCzechia4,1001 (Cincinnati Open)Qualified6Garbine MuguruzaSpain3,736–Qualified7Madison KeysUSA3,637–Qualified8Dominika CibulkovaSlovakia3,625–Qualified9Svetlana KuznetsovaRussia3,490–Failed to qualify10Johanna KontaRussia3,455–Failed to qualify11Carla Suarez NavarroSpain3,1701 (Qatar Open)Failed to qualify12Victoria AzarenkaBelarus3,0612 (Indian Wells, Miami Open)Failed to qualify13Petra KvitovaCzechia2,8401 (Wuhan Open)Failed to qualify14Elina SvitolinaUkraine2,456–Failed to qualify15Venus WilliamsUSA2,241–Failed to qualifyTop 15 in the WTA Race (2016)

Andreeva will want to forget about the second half of her 2025 campaign as soon as possible, where her form deserted her.

She may, however, be concerned about what is to come in 2026, as she will need to recover her level quickly, or risk a big rankings drop…

Mirra Andreeva will defend over half of her points between January and March

Andreeva started 2025 brilliantly, earning herself an impressive 2,445 points by the middle of March.

Brisbane International (Lost in SF) – 195 pointsAustralian Open (Lost in 4R) – 240 pointsQatar Open (Lost in 2R) – 10 pointsDubai Tennis Championships (Winner) – 1,000 pointsIndian Wells (Winner) – 1,000 points

Unfortunately for Andreeva, that means she has a lot of work to do when the new year begins.

Mirra Andreeva reacts during her defeat to Laura Siegemund at the 2025 Wuhan OpenPhoto by WUHAN OPEN OFFICIAL 2025/VCG via Getty Images

If she were to drop those 2,445 points, she could fall to as low as 22nd in the world rankings.

For someone who no doubt has dreams of winning Grand Slam titles and reaching number one in the world, that would be a disaster.

Therefore, she and coach Conchita Martinez must work hard in the off-season to prepare her in the best way possible.

Only time will tell how Andreeva will perform in 2026, but it will certainly be interesting to see if she can rediscover the form that saw her win two WTA 1000 titles earlier this year.