DOHA, February 11. /TASS/. Russia’s top female tennis player Mirra Andreeva failed to reach the quarterfinals of the 2026 Open tennis tournament after she fell on Wednesday to Canada’s Victoria Mboko.
In a match that lasted two hours and 10 minutes, the 5th-seeded Andreeva, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, lost to 10th-seed Mboko 3-6; 6-3; 6-7 (7-5).
"I didn't really have a specific tactic against her," the official WTA website quoted Mboko as saying after the match. "But I know she slices really well, and she hits really low."
"I think she forced me to hit those [slices and spins]. She covers the court really well, so I think for me it was just trying to find the little window to open the court," Mboko continued. "Yeah, I just found myself hitting those kinds of shots because that's all I felt I could do."
"I feel like I came out with some very clutch shots at the end… I think we both were pretty tired when it came to the tiebreak," the Canadian tennis player, who is only a year younger of her Russian opponent, said. "I think I felt like I was lucky enough to have some good shots in the great moments."
Mboko, 19, is now set to face off in the quarterfinals against the winner of the match between China’s Qinwen Zheng and 2nd-seed Yelena Rybakina from Kazakhstan.
Andreeva, 18, is a four-time WTA champion. She is currently Russia's top-ranked female player at 7th place in the WTA Rankings. Her best finish at Grand Slams was at the 2024 French Open when she reached the semifinals. In 2023, the WTA named Andreeva the rookie of the year. Playing at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, she won a silver medal in women’s doubles paired with Diana Shnaider.
Russian and Belarusian 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 moved to exclude 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 participating in the 2022 Davis Cup and the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.