Russian Mirra Andreeva suffered a crushing defeat from Italian Jasmine Paolini in the semi-finals of the French Open. Sports correspondent talks about why this defeat for a 17-year-old tennis player is the most valuable weapon for future victories.
The very first game showed that, to put it mildly, something was wrong with Andreeva. She sent a banal cut shot along the line into an empty court, long into touch, and then completely missed the ball with her racket. This often happens to those who started playing tennis yesterday — but it should never happen to a French Open semi-finalist. Neither a crooked rebound nor a blow of wind is just a mistake at the level of a “teapot” who does not yet understand how to properly throw the ball to the other half of the court.
The problem, obviously, was not Mirra's physical condition. The 17-year-old, strong, trained girl has enough strength to run around the court for three Roland Garros. The reason for what happened to Andreeva, of course, is the classic psychological hole that an athlete inevitably falls into after winning the main victory of her (in the case of the young Russian, still short) professional career. Mirra's outburst of emotions after she beat the world's second-ranked player, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, in a tough match the day before was colossal. Such a triumph inevitably leaves you feeling devastated. But the Grand Slam schedule is relentless — the women's semifinals are on Thursday, and no one is going to give you an extra day off to recover.
And when this day does not exist, the clock counts. And Paolini had more of them, who on Wednesday played her quarterfinal against Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan before Andreeva. It only seems that such an advantage is illusory. No, at such a high level, where we are talking about overcoming the limit of an athlete’s capabilities, every detail is important. And on Thursday, this particular detail was missing from the constructor of Mirra’s potential success in the fight for reaching the Roland Garros final.
Andreeva fought as best she could. At times, she played those fantastic shots and plays, thanks to which she, in fact, is considered a rising star of Russian tennis. But, alas, only at times. Paolini chose the simplest tactic possible — she rolled along the back line and returned all the balls in a row, waiting for Mirra to miss. But this has already happened with unenviable regularity — the Russian woman far surpassed her opponent in unforced errors. Andreeva managed to take only four games in this match — which is a consequence of these statistics.
The highly experienced helmsman of Russian tennis, Shamil Tarpishchev, on the eve of this match, clearly predicted the possible development of events in it.
“The main thing is to have time to recover, the moral and psychological load during the match with Sabalenka was very high. The second point is that they expect a lot from Mirra after this victory, there will be pats on the shoulder, “come on, come on.” And Andreeva needs to abstract herself from this , as Maria Sharapova knew how to do. If she just goes out to play with Paolini for her own pleasure, without thinking about the result, and leaves the aura that has now been created around, then this opponent, of course, is tough for her. But the main thing is recovery. will be, then he can cope with the second part,” he noted.
Unfortunately, it was the first part that let Andreeva down in the first place. The Russian woman was not even close to freshness — psychological, of course. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have scolded herself for all she was worth after her mistakes, wouldn’t have shouted at the audience that irritated her — and, finally, wouldn’t have cried in the end from powerlessness that she couldn’t do anything.
But Paris — Mirra will return. First of all, at the Olympic Games at the end of July, where Andreeva qualified thanks to her colossal, even historical (since 1997, 17-year-olds have not been able to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament) breakthrough. The Olympic matches will be held on the same courts that the Russian woman is leaving today. Before that there will still be Wimbledon. Although grass is not such a suitable surface for Mirra, in recent years in the suburbs of London it is not as fast as it once was, and not only players who backhand every ball, but also adherents of intellectual tennis have a chance to play successfully on it. Andreeva can easily be counted among them already in her young years.
And, of course, the main legacy of this French Open for the Russian is not only 650 thousand euros in prize money (not counting what she earned in doubles with Vera Zvonareva) . The main thing is the experience that will help you in the future to know what to expect from your body in the game at this level, and to understand how to deal with it. And this means that Mirra will not just return — but will return to win.