Russia’s tennis star Andreeva through to 2025 Indian Wells semifinals
Mirra Andreeva has won two WTA titles so far in her career and she is also the winner of a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in women's doubles with partner Diana Shnaider. In 2023, the WTA named Andreeva the rookie of the year
NEW YORK, March 14. /TASS/. Russia’s tennis teen-prodigy Mirra Andreeva secures another straight-sets win at the 2025 Indian Wells Open after defeating in the quarterfinals Elina Svitolina from Ukraine to reach the semifinals.
The 9th-seeded Russian, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, stunned the 23rd-seeded Svitolina 7-5; 6-3 and she is now set to face the tournament’s defending champion and WTA’s No.1 Iga Swiatek of Poland in the semifinals.
"It doesn't give me any benefit to our match tomorrow, because what happened happened, and the past is in the past," the WTA’s official website cited Andreeva as saying after the match.
"Tomorrow is going to be a new day, new match, new conditions, new country. Everything is different," Andreeva said.
"I'm going to try my best to prepare in the best way for our match tomorrow, and I'm sure that the match is going to be great…," she continued.
"I think it's going to be an entertaining match, and we're just going to see who is going to be better tomorrow," the Russian player added.
Andreeva, 17, is currently ranked 11th in the WTA (the Women's Tennis Association) Rankings. Her best result playing at the Grand Slam series was reaching the semifinals of the 2024 French Open.
She has won two WTA titles so far in her career and she is also the winner of a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in women's doubles with partner Diana Shnaider. In 2023, the WTA named Andreeva the rookie of the year.
The 2025 Indian Wells tournament is played on outdoor hard courts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California, the United States, between March 5 and 16 and offers almost $9.6 million and $8.9 million in prize money in men and women’s events correspondingly. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Poland’s Iga Swiatek are the reigning champions in men and women’s competitions respectively.
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 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.