Despite 'love/hate relationship' with clay, Andreeva moves on in Madrid
Mirra Andreeva may be a Roland Garros semifinalist, a reliable fixture in the second week of the Mutua Madrid Open and a two-time WTA titlist on clay, but she still has a "love/hate relationship" with the surface -- as she revealed after defeating qualifier Dalma Galfi 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday.
Madrid: Scores | Draws | Order of play
"What I don't like about clay is obviously getting dirty," she said in her on-court interview. "And being in the shower for 15 minutes, at least, just to get that dust out of you ... I love playing on clay, but after the match I'm not sure I like it so much!"
As Andreeva acknowledged, though, she's "playing not bad" on clay at the moment. Her defeat of Galfi put her into the Madrid last 16 for a fourth straight year, and extended her clay record in 2026 to 9-1. Though the contest wasn't as straightforward as the scoreline suggests -- she needed to come from an early break down in both sets, and all but one game of the second set went to deuce -- it showed off the teenager's natural affinity for clay-court tennis.
"Clay is such a special surface," she said. "You really have to adjust your game."
That was especially the case against No. 117-ranked Galfi, who blended finely-cut drop shots with injections of huge pace on her forehand side, and rarely gave Andreeva a look at the same pace for two balls running. But Andreeva is a stellar exponent of a similar style, and her problem-solving abilitues ultimately proved superior.
In the first set, Andreeva's comeback from 2-0 down was anchored by superb serving -- she conceded just two further points behind her delivery as she swept through six of the next seven games. The second set was a tussle all the way, though, featuring a number of brilliant all-court exchanges in which both players sought to out-manoeuvre each other.
Galfi found a pair of terrific forehand winners to break for 2-1, but for the rest of the set Andreeva found success by luring the Hungarian into over-pressing. The last five games of the match all went to at least one deuce -- there were nine in total across them -- and Andreeva won each of them on a mixtake by Galfi, who racked up 47 unforced errors in total.
Andreeva will bid to reach her third straight Madrid quarterfinal against a third straight Hungarian opponent. Anna Bondar booked her place in a WTA 1000 fourth round for the first time with a 7-6(3), 6-1 defeat of 18-year-old wild card Laura Samson, and will go into her meeting with Andreeva with the head-to-head advantage. Their only previous meeting was in the 2023 Lausanne second round, which Bondar won 7-6(3), 6-3.