MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. /TASS/. Russian teen prodigy Mirra Andreeva climbed four spots in the latest rankings of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), entering the top-20 for the first time in her budding career.
In the newly-published WTA Rankings which came out on Monday, Andreeva moved from 22nd place to 19th. Last week, the Russian player reached the quarterfinals of the 2024 WTA 1000 China Open tennis tournament in Beijing, where she suffered a defeat to China’s Zheng Qinwen.
Andreeva, 17, has one WTA title under her belt. Earlier this year she reached the semifinals of the 2024 French Open. 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.
She also won a silver medal at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris in women’s doubles (playing in pairs with Russia’s Diana Shnaider).
The WTA Top-10 is as follows: 1st Iga Swiatek (Poland); 2nd Arina Sobolenko (Belarusian player competing under a neutral status); 3rd Jessica Pegula (the United States); 4th Coco Gauff (the United States); 5th Yelena Rybakina (Kazakhstan); 6th Jasmine Paolini (Italy); 7th Qinwen Zheng (China); 8th Emma Navarro (the United States); 9th Danielle Collins (the United States); 10th Barbora Krejcikova (the Czech Republic).
Andreeva is joined in the Top-100 of the newly-published WTA Rankings by compatriots Daria Kasatkina (11th), Anna Kalinskaya (13th), Diana Shnaider (16th), Lyudmila Samsonova (23rd), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (26th), Yekaterina Alexandrova (33rd), Anastasia Potapova (38th), Veronika Kudermetova (63rd), Kamilla Rakhimova (66th), Erika Andreeva (70th) and Anna Blinkova (84th).
Russian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022 to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations while also canceling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.
On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.
However, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.