PARIS: The game is sharp-two-handed backhand, a whiplash forehand, a strong first serve and fair variation on the second -but it is the attitude that sets Mirra Andreeva apart.
She's 16 and gifted, the flounces of her layered tennis skirts parks serious star power. On what was a warm morning in Roland Garros, Andreeva, the younger of the tennis-playing sisters from Krasnoyarsk, a city in Siberia, put the sun to shade.
The teenager, 5 ft 7', a crown of blonde waves that dropped to her waist, has come through the qualifiers here and has now made the second round of the French Open without dropping a set. Andreeva, the youngest player in the draw here, put out the 32-year-old American Al is on Riske-Amritraj 6-2, 6-1in her Grand Slam main draw debut. She will play French wildcard entrant Diane Perry on Thursday.
In January, Andreeva finished runner-up in the junior girls event of the Australian Open. She has since worked her way to a21-2 record (at all levels) and a WTA ranking of No. 143. The Andreeva sisters -Erika (18) and Mirra - have set up training base on the French Riviera in Cannes, where they work with coaches Jean-Rene Lisnard and Jean-Christophe Faurel.
The 16-year-old, who takes online classes, should complete high school in the next couple of years. "I'm doing pretty good," she said, adding, "I will not lie, chemistry is so bad. Chemistry for me, I don't understand anything. Math and English, it's not that bad."
Andreeva, who showed no signs of nerves in her one hour on court, said, nerves were normal. "I'm just doing what I feel is right to do on the court. When we talk with my coaches about the plan for the match, I forget all the stuff, and I just play as I feel."
