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Russian tennis chief lauds teen Andreeva’s performance at 2024 Australian Open

The sixteen-year-old Mirra Andreeva is currently ranked 47th in the Women Tennis Association Rankings

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. Teen Russian tennis prodigy Mirra Andreeva made her country proud at this year’s opening Grand Slam series tournament, the 2024 Australian Open, President of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF) Shamil Tarpishchev told TASS on Monday.

In Round 4 of the tournament in Melbourne, Andreeva lost to Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-4; 3-6; 2-6 but, according to Tarpishchev, Andreeva’s defeat was "quite understandable."

"Andreeva did a great job," the RTF president said. "The fact that she lost is quite understandable because it is natural for young players to lose their footing at two-week tournaments since their nerves can get the best of them at this age when put under such stress."

"She is an attacking player, but she started to get greedy, and her game suffered," Tarpishchev added.

The sixteen-year-old Andreeva is currently ranked 47th in the WTA (the Women Tennis Association) Rankings. Last year, in Grand Slams she reached the 3rd round of the French Open, made it all the way to the 4th round at Wimbledon and then battled her way into Round 2 of the US Open. In 2023, the WTA named Andreeva the rookie of the year.

The 2024 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park from January 14-28 and has a purse of $57.8 mln in prize money up for grabs. The opening tournament of the annual Grand Slam series in Australia marks its 112th edition this year. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.

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