The only 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva narrowly missed out on reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon. The Russian lost the classic lawn against the American Madison Keys 6: 3, 6: 7 (4: 7), 2: 6 and was eliminated in the round of 16.
For Andreyeva it was only the second participation in a Grand Slam tournament in her young tennis career. She had reached the third round at the French Open in May.
Keys converted her first match point in London after 2:02 hours. The 28-year-old, who won the tournament in Eastbourne before Wimbledon, meets world number two Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus in the fight for a place in the semi-finals on Wednesday. Sabalenka clearly won 6:4, 6:0 against the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrowa.
New top talent of the scene
Despite her departure, Andreyeva is already being celebrated as a new top talent on the scene. In Wimbledon, the current number 102 in the world fought his way into the main draw through qualification and impressed with his powerful game. The young Russian also showed a strong performance against Keys and dominated the game for a long time.
In the second set she was already a break ahead, but then apparently got her nerves. After losing the tiebreak, she threw her racket across the field and received a warning for it. Keys took advantage of her opponent’s phase of weakness and reached the quarter-finals for the first time since 2015 at Wimbledon. Before the match point, Andreyeva threw her racket onto the field again and received a point deduction. Without saying goodbye to the referee, the Russian left the pitch deeply disappointed after the defeat.
Rybakina and Medvedev further
Defending champion Yelena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) is in the quarterfinals. The 24-year-old benefited from the injury-related retirement of her opponent Beatriz Haddad Maia. The Brazilian was unable to play in the first set when Rybakina was 4-1 due to a hip problem.
Last year’s finalist Ons Jabeur is also further. The Tunisian won surprisingly well against the two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6: 0, 6: 3 and now meets Rybakina.
Daniil Medvedev also benefited from an injury to his opponent. The Russian led 6-4, 6-2 against Jiri Lehecka in his round of 16 before the Czech had to retire due to a foot injury. Medvedev is in the quarterfinals for the first time at Wimbledon.
On Sunday, the two Russians Andrei Rublev and Roman Safiullin had already survived the round of 16. A year after being excluded from Wimbledon because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the Russian men are more successful in London than ever before.
