Mirra Andreeva capped off her outstanding Indian Wells run with another big win as this time the 17-year-old impressively came back from a set down to beat No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka 2-6 6-4 6-3.
The Russian made a slow start to the final, blowing four break points in the fifth game before losing her serve in back-to-back games.
But Andreeva didn’t get discouraged or anything like that. Instead, she became more aggressive – got her first break of the match in the third game of the second set – and then held on to her serve for the rest of the set to send the match into a decider. During the second set, the world No. 11 fired 17 winners.
After having the upper hand in the second set, the 17-year-old blew a very early third-set break but remained as calm as possible and took Sabalenka’s serve again in the third and ninth games to complete her comeback victory.
Now, Andreeva is a two-time WTA 1000 champion and now her winning streak stands at 12. En route to winning back-to-back titles in Dubai and Indian Wells, she twice beat Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina and today also took down the top-ranked player in the game.
Andreeva kept on her promise
Earlier this year, Sabalenka dominated the rising Russian star in their Brisbane and Australian Open matches to improve to 4-1 in their head-to-head. Before the Indian Wells final, the world No. 11 warned the three-time Grand Slam champion that she would be on a mission to “get revenge.
“I can say she almost killed me, especially in Melbourne… I’m gonna try to take revenge, because I still have nothing to lose, and I feel like the match is going to be probably entertaining,” Andreeva said before the match.
By winning this year’s Indian Wells title, the 17-year-old Russian also became the youngest player to win it all in the desert since Serena Williams in 2001.
