Mirra Andreeva defeated Hailey Baptiste, 6-4, 7-6, in the Madrid Open semi-finals.
It wasn’t as straightforward as the scoreline would suggest, though, as Baptiste saved a match point to force a second-set tiebreak.
But Andreeva locked in, winning a high-quality tiebreak, 7-6 [10-8] to book her place in the Madrid Open final.
Do you think Mirra Andreeva is more likely to win the French Open than Iga Swiatek?
Mirra Andreeva is into the Madrid Open final…
After the match, Andreeva shared what she was telling herself during the latter stages of her semi-final win in an interview with Sky Sports.
Mirra Andreeva told herself that Hailey Baptiste would need to ‘do something extraordinary’ to beat her
“Honestly, I’m super happy that I was able to stay composed and focused, even though I had a couple of opportunities to close out the set without the tiebreak,” said Andreeva.
“When it didn’t happen, I just told myself that if she is going to win the second set, she is going to have to do something extraordinary, because I’m not going to just let her win those points,” said Andreeva.
“I feel like she was a little bit more brave closer to the end of the set, I also got a little bit more tight. I’m just happy that I was able to force myself to play brave and really go for my serves and my shots, so I would have more opportunities to close out this match.”
Andreeva was then asked about the quality of her first serve, which helped her secure the win in straight sets.
“I think that so many free points were helpful,” she said.
“At some point, I thought there had been at least a couple of games where I didn’t miss my first serve, then obviously, as soon as I thought about it, I started to miss my first serves right away!
“So I really tried not to think about it, not to look at the screens and the statistics.
Mirra Andreeva vs Hailey Baptiste – Match stats
| Stats | Mirra Andreeva | Hailey Baptiste |
| Aces | 3 | 5 |
| Double faults | 1 | 2 |
| 1st Serve % | 69% | 56% |
| Win % on 1st Serve | 81% | 66% |
| Win % on 2nd Serve | 72% | 66% |
| Break points | 2/4 | 1/1 |
“But I felt like my serve helped me a lot today, especially in the tiebreak, saving a lot of set points and winning a lot of points, so I’m super happy that today was such a quality match for me.”
Andreeva is scheduled to return to action on Friday for her doubles semi-final match with Diana Shnaider.
The teenager explained how playing doubles helps her singles game.
“I love playing doubles, and I’m having so much fun all the time when I step on the court, we’ve won a couple of tournaments, we have amazing results together and obviously a lot of fun on the court as well,” she said.
“I feel like now, it’s helping me to just forget about that pressure when I play singles, and really just enjoy and have fun in doubles, but when things are getting competitive, we’re not backing down, we’re fighting until the end, so trying to win this thing in doubles as well!”
Andreeva and Shnaider will play Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva in the Madrid Open semi-finals, before she returns to play either Marta Kostyuk or Anastasia Potapova in the singles final on Saturday.
Naomi Broady praises Mirra Andreeva’s mentality after recent outbursts
During her fourth-round match in Madrid, Andreeva claimed she wasn’t a ‘champion’ after allowing a lead to slip against Anna Bondar.
Her mentality was tested again in the semi-finals, especially when Andreeva disagreed with a line call in the first set.
Former British tennis star Naomi Broady weighed in on Andreeva’s composure after the match.
“[Mirra] Andreeva, the talk has been about the emotions; they weren’t there today, or they were there but in the best of ways,” she said.
“We speak about the emotions like it’s such a negative, but today she channelled them, she used them for grit, for fight, and then the big release at the end.
“I’m sure that will have been a far more enjoyable match to play than the other ones where she completely loses it emotionally.
“There was a chance back at the start with that ball mark that she didn’t agree with, but she could have lost it there; it was that close, but she didn’t, she kept it under wraps.
“So I think the conversation is going to be, not so much look how good that was, but look at what you can do, what did you do, let’s do that again, and build from there.”
Mirra Andreeva postpones birthday celebrations
Andreeva turned 19 during the Madrid Open, but is waiting for the end of the tournament before she truly celebrates.
“We kind of did a little celebration yesterday at the restaurant, but I really couldn’t allow myself to even drink a soda!” she said.
“I was drinking sparkling water, and I ate a little bit of cake, but I think we will have a bigger celebration a little bit later, maybe after Rome or before Rome.
“I will get my celebration, but maybe a little bit later.”
