Andreeva on post-Wimbledon pause: ‘I didn’t even think about tennis’

RESET HAS ROLAND GARROS CHAMP FEELING RENEWED

By Richard Osborn

The lessons come fast and furious when you’re 19 and already a Grand Slam champion, the youngest Roland Garros winner since Monica Seles in 1992.

Mirra Andreeva got some of that schooling in the wake of her major breakthrough on the terre battue in June. The 5-foot-9 Siberian barely had time to celebrate, to digest all that she had accomplished, when the page was turned and she was onto the grass courts. An opening round loss in Bad Homburg, and a second-round stall at Wimbledon followed.

“After I won in Paris, the first few tournaments were not easy because I was still sometimes thinking, ‘Wow, I won! Yay! Great!’ Considering how I’ve played since, that’s not the best,” said Andreeva, who last year became the youngest player to crack the Top 10 in nearly two decades. “I was talking about it with my psychologist and with my [coach] Conchita [Martinez]. I’m trying to approach Roland Garros as just another tournament that I won. I hope that will help me, and I can move on.”

Andreeva, back in Cincinnati for the first time since reaching the quarterfinals in 2024, says a brief, post-Wimbledon pause helped her reset.

“I took some time off — almost two weeks,” she said. “I didn’t do anything physical. I didn’t even think about tennis. My racquets were still in my suitcase. I didn’t even unpack them. I didn’t want to look at them. I just took some time for myself.”

The break allowed Andreeva to see her family and her beloved dog. She even attended tourmate Daria Kasatkina’s wedding in Greece. (The Aussie transplant married her longtime partner, the figure skater Natalia Zabiiako.)

“Dasha’s wedding, it was unbelievable,” said Andreeva.

Her favorite part?

“I guess all the dancing that we did, meeting a lot of new people, meeting their families, and just spending time with people that I enjoy spending time with,” she said. “I was super happy and grateful that I got an invitation to see and experience the probably the most important moment of their lives. Everyone got so comfortable. We were doing whatever the hell we wanted. We were dancing until 3 a.m. I’m just so happy that I was able to go and experience all of that.”

Raised to be a tennis champion, the Roland Garros winner Andreeva was craving a little normalcy in her life. Her post-Wimbledon pause helped her find that. Sometimes you just need to keep those racquets in the suitcase. Another lesson learned.

“All my life, the only break from tennis that I had was maybe two, three days, and if we would go on vacation, we would still play every day to not lose the feeling of the ball,” she said. “Now I’m kind of learning something new, that it’s also important to not think about tennis, not play tennis. Then after, you actually feel better on the court mentally and physically.”