WIMBLEDON — Mirra Andreeva continues to play a level of tennis far ahead of her time.
On Monday, the 18-year-old defeated No. 10 seed Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals at the All England Club. She’s the youngest to do that since Nicole Vaidisova, some 18 years ago. Andreeva is also the first teenager to reach the elite eight since Victoria Azarenka and Sabine Lisicki in 2009.
On Wednesday, Andreeva meets Belinda Bencic, who was a 7-6 (4), 6-4 winner over No. 18 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Wimbledon: Scores | Order of play | Draws
Andreeva is a startlingly complete player for one so young. On a cool, breezy day on Centre Court, she converted a cold-hearted six of seven break points against Navarro and saved four of six in a match that required only 75 minutes.
Only World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Coco Gauff (7) have beaten more Top 10 players this year than Andreeva’s six. She’s also third to those same players with 36 WTA Tour-level victories.
At 24, Navarro is six years older than Andreeva, but this is the third Wimbledon main draw for both of them. Andreeva came in this year with a 3-2 record, while Navarro was 4-2 — a small sample size, but their early returns here have been encouraging.
Andreeva hadn’t dropped a set in three matches and Navarro eliminated defending champion Barbora Krejcikova in a three set, third-round match. In terms of ranking, this was the highest-level match so far this fortnight.
Breaking Navarro in just the third game and again in the fifth, Andreeva never gave her any real hope. Serving is what separated these two; Andreeva’s first-serve average was more than 16 miles per hour more than Navarro’s.
In the last game of the first set, when Navarro managed to force a break point, here is how Andreeva responded with a:
- 119 mph unreturned serve.
- 117 mph unreturned serve.
- 121 mph unreturned serve.
That last one converted her third set point and held up as her fastest of the match.
Second set was more of the same as Andreeva broke Navarro’s serve four more times. She was so dialed in that when she finally won the match — at love — she didn’t realize it. It was only after she glanced at the celebration in her player box that she broke into a smile and sprinted to the net to shake hands.
Andreeva has now won seven of the nine matches she’s played at Wimbledon. She’s already mastered the subtle movements required on grass and when to pack the power into her service games. And while the second serve, which averaged only 83.9 mph against Navarro, is a work in progress, we’d remind you that she’s the age of a typical college freshman.
This is the third quarterfinal in her past six major appearances and the second in a row.