16-year-old Mirra Andreeva breaks into the Top-50 of the WTA rankings as her exponential rise continues having jumped more than 240 places since the start of the season

The Russian teenager has seen a meteoric rise in her rankings over the course of the last 2 years.

16-year-old Mirra Andreeva breaks into the Top-50 of the WTA rankings as her exponential rise continues having jumped more than 240 places since the start of the season

Mirra Andreeva (Source: ESPN Tennis)

Russian tennis player Mirra Andreeva has finally broken into the WTA’s Top 50 rankings at the young age of just 16 years old. She has jumped over 240 places since the beginning of the season and now stands in the elite zone of women’s tennis. The youngster will now have to up her game tremendously if she wants to prove to the fans that she is well deserving of this ranking. 

Andreeva has had a great season so far in 2023, considering her young age. She reached the round-of-16 of the Madrid Open, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka, the third round of the Wimbledon Open, where she lost to Coco Gauff, and the round-of-16 of the US Open. However, now that the youngster has a top 50 ranking, fans across the globe will stop seeing her as ‘just a 16-year-old’ and thus she will have to keep on giving her best and getting better results in tournaments. 

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The Russian is currently not just the youngest player in the Top 50 but the youngest overall in the Top 150 as well. She recently reached the round of 16 of the China Open before being eliminated by Elena Rybakina. It brought her ranking up from World No. 60 to World No. 50. On October 9, 2022, Andreeva had a world rank of 429. On January 1, 2023, she had a rank of 293. On October 9, 2023, she jumped all the way to 50. 

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Some other significant changes have been seen in the WTA Rankings as well. The most notable one is definitely Iga Swiatek closing in on the gap between her and World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. Last week, there was a gap of 1,071 points between the two players. This week, it has been closed down to 590 points after Swiatek’s China Open triumph. 

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Mirra Andreeva lost to Elena Rybakina despite winning the first set 

Mirra Andreeva played her heart out in China Open’s round-of-16 against Elena Rybakina. The 16-year-old won the first set and was looking all set to clinch a vital victory against the Kazakhstani player. However, Rybakina showed her experience and ended up pulling a clutch victory by winning the last two sets. 

Elena Rybakina (L), Mirra Andreeva (R)
Elena Rybakina (L), Mirra Andreeva (R) (Sources: Super Tennis, Tennis World DE)

Mirra seemed ready for the challenge of facing Rybakina ahead of the match. “I wanted to play her actually. I like how she plays. I know she’s a good server. I will try to break her a few times, if possible. I will give my everything so there are no regrets. If I win then I’m super happy. If she wins it means she played some good tennis. But I’m excited for it,” she had said. 

It was clear that she had done her homework well. Unfortunately, it was just not enough to get her a win.

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