Mirra Andreeva has advanced to a Grand Slam final for the first time in her young career.
Andreeva, who turned 19 years old in April, comfortably defeated Marta Kostyuk 6-1, 6-3 to book her spot in Saturday’s showpiece event.
It was a superb performance by Andreeva, who ended Kostyuk’s 17-match win streak.
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There was a nervous moment for Andreeva midway through the second set of Thursday’s semi-final contest.
With rain on the horizon, Roland Garros organisers chose to close the Court Philippe Chatrier roof as the players were competing, rather than pausing play.
Chris Evert and Coco Vandeweghe have since reacted to that decision.
Chris Evert says closing the Roland Garros roof was a ‘distracting’ but ‘smart’ decision
“I was thinking it was a distraction,” Evert, an 18-time major singles champion, admitted while commentating for TNT Sports on Thursday afternoon.
“You throw your toss up and there was a roof moving and it was even darker on one side!
“But they were smart to do it.”
Coco Vandeweghe, the former world number nine, agreed with Evert’s initial assessment, while also alluding to Kostyuk’s missed opportunity.
While the roof was being closed, Kostyuk appeared to have shifted the momentum, breaking Andreeva’s serve and reducing the second-set deficit from 1-4 to 3-4.
However, Andreeva broke back immediately, before serving out the match.
“It’s definitely a distraction,” Vandeweghe said of the mid-match roof closure.
“I am surprised that Marta Kostyuk… she could have used it to her advantage to slow things down.
“When you are losing you want to lose as slowly as possible and you never know, Mirra Andreeva might have blinked.
“She kind of started to but there was not enough time for Marta Kostyuk to find her way back into the match.”
Mirra Andreeva is one of the youngest Roland Garros finalists
As per statisticians OptaAce, Mirra Andreeva is the fifth youngest Women’s Singles finalist at Roland Garros in the last 30 years.
Andreeva trails only Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters and Coco Gauff in this specific statistical area.
Hingis, a 25-time major winner across all tennis formats, is the youngest Roland Garros finalist of the past three decades.
In 1997, Hingis reached the final at 16 years old. She was defeated by Iva Majoli in straight sets.
Youngest Roland Garros finalists of the past 30 years [age calculated at start of event]
- Martina Hingis – 1997 [16 years and 238 days]
- Kim Clijsters – 2001 [17 years and 355 days]
- Coco Gauff – 2022 [18 years and 71 days]
- Martina Hingis – 1999 [18 years and 236 days]
- Mirra Andreeva – 2026 [19 years and 25 days]
Two years later, Hingis again made the final. Again she lost – this time to Steffi Graf.
