Mirra Andreeva’s hopes of defending her Dubai Tennis Championships title were given a boost on Wednesday when she defeated Jacqueline Cristian.
The Russian continued to demonstrate why she is one of the best young talents on the Tour alongside Victoria Mboko, defeating Cristian 7-5, 6-3 on the Dubai Centre Court.
Andreeva, the fifth seed in Dubai, will face Amanda Anisimova in the quarter-finals after the American defeated Janice Tjen earlier on Wednesday.
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After reaching yet another quarter-final at the WTA 1000 level, Andreeva has now forced herself into an elite conversation alongside Coco Gauff.
Mirra Andreeva has now reached eight WTA 1000 quarter-finals
As per statisticians OptaAce, Mirra Andreeva is now the player with the joint-most WTA-1000 quarter-finals reached before turning 19 since the format’s introduction in 2009, equalling Coco Gauff.
Andreeva has now reached eight WTA 1000 quarter-finals before the age of 19, equalling Gauff’s total.
Andreeva made her first WTA 1000 quarter-final at the 2024 Madrid Open. Since then, she has reached seven more quarter-finals: the 2024 Cincinnati Open and China Open; the 2025 Dubai Championships, Indian Wells Open, Madrid Open and Italian Open; and the 2026 Dubai Tennis Championships.
Andreeva has won two of those eight events: the 2025 Dubai Championships and Indian Wells Open.
As for Coco Gauff, she did not turn 19 until March 13, 2023.
Before then, she reached the quarter-finals of WTA 1000 events at the 2021 Dubai Championships, Italian Open and Italian Open; the 2022 Qatar Open and Cincinnati Open; and the 2023 Dubai Championships and Indian Wells Open.
Aged 19, Gauff won her first WTA 1000 title at the 2023 Cincinnati Open, defeating Karolina Muchova in the final.
Mirra Andreeva reacts to beating Jacqueline Cristian
After defeating Cristian, Andreeva admitted that she had not played her best tennis.
The Russian won only 31 per cent of points on her second serve and hit seven double faults against the Romanian player.
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Speaking on court after the match, Andreeva said: “Honestly, I feel my game was really far from perfect today. But I’m just happy that I could walk away from the court as a winner because it was really tough to play here today. I really struggled with conditions.
“I remember that last year my first match was also a bit tough… I just wanted to say thank you so much guys for supporting me, because it would have been three times more difficult if you were not here
“So thank you so much for coming and for cheering me so yeah it means a lot so thank you so much and I just hope you can come to my next match and cheer for me as well.”
