When Mirra Andreeva arrived at the Creekside Hotel, located within the confines of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, she got a kick out of seeing huge posters of her face plastered all over the place as the tournament’s reigning champion.
“I kind of like the attention from people, from media. I don't mind when that happens,” the affable 18-year-old said ahead of the tournament.
“It felt special when I came to the hotel and I saw my face. It's just nice to see that. That also kind of gives me more motivation to try and play well here and maybe to try and defend the title, so when I come next year, my face is there again. Yeah, it was really nice to see.”
A year ago, Andreeva put together a 13-match winning streak that was the stuff of legends. Then 17, she arrived in Dubai ranked 14 in the world and was already considered one of the tour’s brightest young prospects.
With some stunning performances, Andreeva marched to the first WTA 1000 title of her career, knocking out three grand slam champions in the process, in the form of Marketa Vondrousova, Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, before easing past Clara Tauson in the final.
She famously thanked herself in her victory speech – something she said she stole from the rapper Snoop Dogg – as she became the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion and guaranteed herself a top-10 debut in the world rankings.
At her next tournament in Indian Wells, Andreeva navigated an eerily similar draw to the one she had just conquered. The Russian teen once again defeated Tauson, Rybakina and Swiatek on her way to the championship match. She then took down world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka to make it back-to-back WTA 1000 crowns.
She once again thanked herself during the trophy ceremony – why break a habit when it seems to be working?
Now back in Dubai and ready to kick off her title defence against Daria Kasatkina on Tuesday, Andreeva explained her approach to this critical part of her calendar, where she has 2000 points to defend across two tournaments.
“When I was supposed to come here after Doha, I thought that I would feel so much pressure on defending my title for the first time and coming as a defending champion for the first time,” Andreeva told The National on the eve of the Dubai tournament.
“But now all I feel is excitement. I don't know why. It kind of took me by surprise a little bit as well. But I think that's the same feeling that I'm going to experience in Indian Wells.
“And you know, you're just going to have to learn how to maybe deal with the pressure when it comes when you defend the title. But if you want to win tournaments, if you want to be a great player or be number one in the world, you're not going to be winning tournaments without defending titles after.
“So it's just a normal thing to experience. And I think as soon as I understood that, it just made things easier for me.”
Things weren’t necessarily easy for Andreeva after her fairy tale runs in Dubai and Indian Wells last season. Thrust into the spotlight more than ever before, she had some solid results – notably quarter-final showings in Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros and Wimbledon – mixed with several early exits.
“After Dubai and Indian Wells, of course, it was pretty challenging to go to Miami because, I didn't have much time to practice there. And also a lot of people were expecting me to win Miami as well. So I was like, well, you know what people? I will try my best,” Andreeva reflected.
“But of course, no promises. And after it was also a little bit tough because people were expecting me to win every single tournament that I would play.
“So it was something new that I experienced for the first time in my career. And now I also know how it feels and how to go through that. So I guess it was one of those lessons that you have to go through in your career to improve as a player, I guess.”
There was a major lesson learned for Andreeva at the end of 2025.
She was in pole position to clinch the final qualifying spot for the WTA Finals in Riyadh but she misjudged the situation and was overtaken by Rybakina at the very last moment. Andreeva could have tried to stave off Rybakina’s late surge but she decided to skip a tournament in Tokyo – which was her last chance to gather points before the WTA Finals – and it cost her a maiden singles qualification for the season-ending championships.
She qualified in doubles alongside her partner Diana Shnaider but admitted it stung not being there for singles, noting that missing Tokyo was a “mistake”.
Andreeva’s decision made for a sliding doors moment as Rybakina went on to win the WTA Finals along with a record prize purse of $5.235 million. It’s no surprise that qualifying for the WTA Finals in singles this year is one of Andreeva’s top goals for 2026.
Her start to the season bodes well as Andreeva picked up the fourth title of her career in Adelaide last month. She wore a jacket emblazoned with the words “I want to thank myself” during the trophy ceremony.
She said she wasn’t too keen to get back to the practice court during preseason “because I didn’t feel like working a lot” but soon embraced the intensive four-week training block put together by her team, which is spearheaded by Spanish coach and former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez.
“When we talked with Conchita on what we both want to work on, we pretty much said that we both like how I play right now, just I need to be more consistent with some points of my game,” Andreeva explained. “And we worked a lot on my serve, on my volley game, on the touch, on keep playing aggressive. So just kind of making a little touch-ups on the things that I do right now on the court.”
Andreeva broke through at the age of 15, when she stormed to the Madrid Open fourth round as a 194th-ranked tour debutante.
The following year she reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros, won Olympic silver alongside Shnaider in doubles and clinched a maiden tour-level title at a tournament in Romania. She accomplished all this before she had turned 18.
“Sometimes I do forget that I'm still just 18. And when I remember that, I'm like, what am I even stressing about? I'm just 18 years old. I have like a whole career ahead of me. So sometimes when I remember about that, it makes things easier,” she says.
Not long after Andreeva pulled off the Dubai-Indian Wells last year, another young teen emerged on to the scene as Victoria Mboko made a stunning run to the Canadian Open title as an 85th-ranked wildcard.
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Russia's Mirra Andreeva celebrates winning Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final against Denmark's Clara Tauson on Saturday, February 22, 2025. Reuters -
Russia's Mirra Andreeva, right, with the winner's trophy in Dubai after defeating Clara Tauson. Reuters -
Russia's Mirra Andreeva greets Denmark's Clara Tauson after winning the Dubai Tennis Championship final. Reuters -
Russia's Mirra Andreeva hits a return against Denmark's Clara Tauson. Reuters -
Clara Tauson of Denmark had impressed en route to the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships. EPA -
Mirra Andreeva dominated the final against Clara Tauson. Reuters
Things escalated quickly for Mboko, who this week has broken into the top 10, thanks to a 13-4 start to her 2026 campaign.
Mboko and Andreeva have already squared off twice this season, with Andreeva beating the 19-year-old Canadian in the Adelaide final before Mboko got her revenge in the third round in Doha last week.
All signs point to this becoming a main rivalry on the WTA tour in years to come, and Andreeva does not disagree, but isn’t a big fan of the term.
“I do think that we might have something going on in the future like this, because obviously this year we played against each other twice already. And I think that there are going to be so many tournaments in the future that we're going to play against each other,” said Andreeva.
“It's not really nice to have a rivalry with someone. But if I were to choose one player, it's just nice to share those moments with her because I’ve known her for a long time, obviously. She's a great player, so I don't mind to have something like this going on in the future.”
