Andreeva holds off Bronzetti to reach third round of Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON -- Back in February, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva won the title in Dubai becoming the youngest player ever to capture a WTA 1000. A few weeks later, she won another one in Indian Wells and found herself in the Top 10.
Teenagers can be volatile, of course, and there was a disappointing loss to wild card Lois Boisson in the Roland Garros quarterfinals -- one stage earlier than she achieved the year before -- followed by a first-round loss in Berlin to Magdalena Frech several weeks ago.
Wimbledon: Scores | Order of play | Draws
Here at the All England Club, Andreeva has collected herself nicely. On Thursday she was a 6-1, 7-6 (4) winner over Lucia Bronzetti, advancing to the third round. She’ll play the winner of the later match between Hailey Baptiste and lucky loser Victoria Mboko.
Andreeva has already won 34 matches this year -- only Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula have more. Bronzetti, ranked No. 63, was the 12th player outside the Top 50 that Andreeva has beaten this year. Her only such loss was to Boisson.
Andreeva served well, winning 46 of 63 points, but perhaps more importantly, she took 19 of Bronzetti’s 30 second-serve points. Andreeva’s forehand slice, it should be mentioned. was a constant bother to Bronzetti, who has now lost all 10 career matches to Top 10 players.
Watching the No. 7-seeded Andreeva fluidly playing and thinking her way through points, it’s easy to forget that at 18 she’s the youngest player in the PIF WTA Tour Top 75. Of the six teenagers in the main draw, she’s the only one left standing.
The first set was an example of Andreev’s rapidly improving tennis IQ and keen sense of timing. She didn’t face a break point in that frame, but the two times Bronzetti had her in a 15-30 hole, Andreeva responded with an ace -- and ultimately closed out the set in 23 minutes.
After Bronzetti raced out to a 5-2 lead in the second set, Andreeva slowly reeled her in -- calmly saving two set points in the process -- to level it at 5-all.
Andreeva opened the tiebreak with a gorgeous running crosscourt backhand winner and followed it up with another backhand winner. She closed it with a sweet forehand stab volley that Bronzetti couldn’t run down.
