BERLIN, April 15. /TASS/. Russia’s top female tennis player Mirra Andreeva started on Wednesday the 2026 WTA Tennis Tournament in Germany’s Stuttgart with a win over reigning champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the opening round.
The 6th-seeded Andreeva, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, rebounded from the first set defeat and took down her unseeded Latvian opponent 5-7; 6-2; 6-4.
"It was crazy," the WTA official website quoted Andreeva as saying after the match. "I actually didn't think I'd be able to come back in the third set, but the last tournament I played in Linz showed me that I can actually win from any score."
"So I just kept believing in myself and was trying to grab any opportunity I have, and slowly, point by point, I felt like I'm coming back. She's a tough player to play, especially in the first round," she continued.
"She's also a very tough opponent to play against, because she also hits the ball very hard. She has a great serve. I feel like today maybe was also some kind of a preparation for the match tomorrow, because both of my opponents were hitting pretty hard today," the Russian tennis player added.
In the next round, Andreeva is set to play against the tournament’s qualifier Alycia Parks from the United States.
Andreeva, 18, is a five-time WTA champion. She is currently Russia's top-ranked female player at 9th 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 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.
The 2026 WTA Tennis Grand Prix in Germany is a WTA 500 tournament played on indoor clay courts located at the up to 8,000-seat capacity Porsche Arena in Stuttgart between April 13 and 19, 2024, and offers over $1.2 million in prize money. Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko is the tournament’s reigning champion.
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.