Russian teen claims first Grand Slam tennis title with French Open win

Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva was already a tennis phenom at age 15. Now 19, she’s a Grand Slam champion.

The eighth-ranked Andreeva ended the run of 114th-ranked Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the French Open final on Saturday. This was the first Grand Slam for both players. 

Andreeva became the youngest player to win the women’s singles title since Monica Seles, who was 18 when she landed her third straight French Open in 1992.

Chwalinska was attempting to become the first qualifier to capture the Roland Garros title.

Andreeva has been considered a Grand Slam contender since she burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old at the 2023 Madrid Open, when she became the third-youngest player to win a main-draw match at a WTA 1000 tournament and made the quarterfinals.

Lately, Andreeva has had to contend with playing under neutral status and without her country’s flag due to the war with Ukraine. Andreeva was born Siberia and moved to Sochi and eventually France to develop her tennis career.

When she beat Marta Kostyuk in the semifinals, her opponent refused to shake her hand, as has been the custom for Ukrainian players facing Russians ever since the war started in 2022.

There was a strong Polish presence in the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd Saturday, and when Chwalinska was introduced, fans held aloft red-and-white Polish flags and chanted her name. Andreeva herself had little support from the crowd, although there was a shout of “Davai Mirra!” — “Go Mirra” — in Russian late in the match.

Andreeva has now gone a step further than her coach, Conchita Martinez, who lost the 2000 French Open final to Mary Pierce. Pierce presented the winner’s trophy to Andreeva.

During the trophy presentation, Andreeva took the unusual step of thanking herself “for believing in myself, always giving my 100%, even when it’s tough, trying every day to be better as a person and as a player, believing that I can do this, fighting so many demons inside of me.

“Only I know how tough it was for me,” Andreeva added. “How nervous I was throughout these two weeks.”

The final was played under mostly sunny skies, though wind was a factor. 

When Andreeva executed a backhand cross-court winner on her first match point, she dropped on her knees to the clay to celebrate.

Chwalinska double-faulted on the opening point of the match, but was the first player to hold serve in the fifth game.

In men’s doubles, top-seeded Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos retained their title with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.

Alexander Zverev plays Flavio Cobolli in the men’s final on Sunday to conclude the wildest Grand Slam in recent memory.