Mirra Andreeva defeated Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 to win the women's championship title of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, Calif., on Sunday, March 16, 2025.

tennis

Former Grand Slam Champion Praises Teen Sensation Mirra Andreeva, Conchita Martinez Back to Back Masters 1000 Wins!

Former tennis great Andy Roddick has been quite impressed with Russian teen Mirra Andreeva and her rise on the WTA tour. At the recently concluded Indian Wells tournament, Andreeva fought a tough battle against World number one, Aryna Sabalenka, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 en route to her second consecutive WTA 1000 title. Andreeva had previously won her first ever WTA 1000 title less than a month ago on 22nd February at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Following another strong showing at Indian Wells, Roddick, on his podcast ‘Served’ With Andy Roddick, the former men’s World number one shared his thoughts on the youngest woman to defeat the top two players on the women’s circuit at the same tournament.

“I think the consensus around tennis universe is that Mirra Andreeva will be a Grand Slam Champion at some point…still super young. Pretty impressive stuff, and all without having the biggest shot on the court yet. You feel like she is still growing into her body, doesn’t have that knockout power, so problem solves.”

Andy Roddick praises Conchita Martinez for Mirra Andreeva’s Resurgence

Roddick was also all praise for her actions of the court that reflect good decisions even at such a young age. He sounded amazed by her decision to hire former Spanish great tennis player, Conchita Martinez, as her coach.

“Even hiring Conchita Martinez as a coach, realizing, hey, listen, where do I source wisdom, and going out and finding someone like Conchita…those are all very very intelligent progressions on and off the court in 2024. What does she do in 2025? More, more of it!”

Mirra Mirra on the wall, is Andreeva on the way to a Grand Slam final? (Perhaps World no. 1??) 🔮

We covered her 2024 season at the end of last year, and she’s continuing to blow us all away. Congratulations Mirra! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/qTeukKXRrz
— Served with Andy Roddick (@Served_Podcast) March 17, 2025

Hiring Martinez as her coach is a move that should do wonders for her career, and the results are already starting to show. Andreeva has now won back-to-back WTA 1000 events and has broken multiple records as the youngest player to achieve certain milestones and victories.

For example, she became the youngest player ever to have wins over multiple major champions at the 1000 level after defeating Markéta Vondroušová and the current world No. 2, Iga Świątek at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Moreover, at Indian Wells, she has risen to new heights defeating both the number two Iga Swiatek, and the number one Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals and finals respectively.

A couple of weeks ago, prior to the start of Indian Wells, Roddick had also predicted that Andreeva will become the World number one at some point.

“Mirra Andreeva is going to be number one in the world at some point.”

There is no question that the 17-year-old Russian is on the rise in the tennis world and if she continues on this trajectory, a win at one of the Grand Slams may not be too far away. Perhaps she can replicate the success of several legends of the game in becoming one of the youngest Grand Slam winners in women’s tennis.

Conchita Martinez

Mirra Andreeva

Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!