MIRRA Andreeva outclassed Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-3 to book her spot in the semifinals of the French Open on Tuesday, a year on from her painful defeat at the same stage when the frustrated teenager blasted a ball into the Parisian crowd.
The Russian eighth seed needed just under an hour on Court Philippe Chatrier to reach the last four at Roland Garros for the second time in three years.
Andreeva, 19, reached the last eight in 2025 before falling in straight sets to French sensation Lois Boisson.
When rain started falling over the French capital on Tuesday morning and Andreeva realized the match would take place under a closed roof, she said she started immediately having flashbacks to her bad-tempered loss from 12 months ago.
“I was actually joking a little bit this morning, because it was raining, and I knew that we would play with a closed roof. I was just saying that I have little bit of flashbacks to last year,” she said.
“I was just trying to have flashbacks only about the weather and only about the court with closed roof, not about how I played.”
However, she need not have worried as she flew out of the traps to race through the first set in a mere 24 minutes.
“I honestly didn’t expect that (winning the first set to love)… Let’s start with me having an amazing warm-up before the match on the court,” she said.
“I felt like I didn’t miss one ball during the warm-up, so I kind of got a little bit nervous after that, because usually when you have an amazing warm-up, you don’t play the same way during the match.
“But, I don’t know, I just found myself being very, very focused, very aggressive, going for my shots all the time. I don’t know what happened, but I was just, like, in the zone, I guess.”
Two years on from her only previous semi-final run at a major, the former world number five said she was “super happy” to be back in the last four at Roland Garros. — AFP
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