Andreeva gave diamond painting a shot -- and now she's hooked

With so much travel and so much pressure week to week, WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz players are often looking for ways to relax and calm their minds and bodies, away from the courts and away from screens.

For Victoria Mboko, that looks like playing cards.

For Mirra Andreeva, as of recently, it's diamond painting.

The World No. 8 first saw the DIY activity advertised on Instagram, and then she noticed some other players doing it. So she decided to pick up a small kit in a shop, and it didn't take long for her to get hooked

"I found a new hobby for myself," she explained ahead of the Mutua Madrid Open. "Diamond painting got really popular, so I bought four already and I finished three. I'm doing a fourth one. I'm trying not to buy those huge sets because I have no idea where I'm going to put them in a house. So I buy small little paintings."

It's the perfect activity to get lost in and zone out for hours at a time, which is especially useful when globetrotting from tournament to tournament.

"I can spend like three hours just putting those little pieces onto the painting, one by one," she added. "And it just keeps me busy. I put on a podcast or an interview, and I just listen."

Andreeva has gotten off to an excellent Clay-Court swing, winning seven of her first eight matches and claiming her second title of the year in Linz. Last week in Stuttgart, she beat former champions Jelena Ostapenko and Iga Swiatek before falling to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the semifinals.

As she transitions from the indoor clay to the outdoor clay at La Caja Magica, she's working on adjusting to the conditions ahead of her opening match.

g"It's challenging because obviously we played indoor on clay," she told reporters on Monday. "And now, here, we have a little bit of altitude. Obviously no roof -- sun, wind, just a lot of weather changing, a lot of different conditions. So I think it's important to, [in the] first few days, understand that the conditions are going to be different.

"You're just going to need a little bit of time to get used to it. And then after, with time, you just adjust like you adjust to everything. And [then you] just don't really notice the difference anymore."

This will be Andreeva's fourth time playing Madrid, and she's reached the quarterfinals each of the past two years.

Seeded ninth, she'll get a bye into the second round.