The Albany Gazette - From Siberia to French Open final, Andreeva living 'dream'

She started playing tennis with her older sister Erika, also now a professional player, in Krasnoyarsk, some 4,000 kilometres east of Moscow.

"I never actually thought that I would be able to win big tournaments or be in Grand Slam finals," she said after her semi-final win over Marta Kostyuk at Roland Garros.

"It was just all my dreams, everything that I have been dreaming of."

The current world number eight was just 16 when she made her Grand Slam debut in Paris in 2023, already under big expectations.

She had become the first player to win multiple W60 titles on the ITF circuit before the age of 16.

Andreeva lived up to the hype, reaching the French Open third round and then the Wimbledon last 16.

The Russian took another huge step forwards by reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals in 2024 but lost to Jasmine Paolini.

Two WTA 1000 titles followed early in 2025 in Dubai and at Indian Wells, the latter with a statement comeback victory over Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

A quarter-final defeat by French wildcard Lois Boisson at Roland Garros last year would have been a painful loss to take, as she struggled to deal with a partisan home crowd.

But Andreeva says that she feels she is now coping better with the pressure of playing on the sport's biggest stages.

"I definitely feel more experienced compared to last year," Andreeva said.

"Before I was nervous. Now, I'm also nervous when I play matches like this or when I'm up in the score and I'm serving and the opponent breaks me.

"Then, before, I was thinking that, 'Oh, my God, if I lost my serve, it's like the end of the world'.

"Now I feel like, if she broke me, well, so what? I will try to break her back.

"I have been trying to work on me being more calm, more positive."

She said she has also learned to rely on her team, led by Conchita Martinez, a Wimbledon winner in 1994 and French Open finalist in 2000.

"I feel like I completely trust what my team tells me, and now it's easier for me to do. Whatever they tell me, I will just do it," she said.

"Also, maybe, it's easier after to blame them if something doesn't go well."

- Brilliant clay-court swing -

Andreeva's form dropped off late last year after another Grand Slam quarter-final exit at Wimbledon, but she has pushed on again in recent months.

Her ranking had slipped to 10th from a career-high fifth by the start of the European clay-court swing, which has produced a brilliant return to her best form.

The teenager won a WTA tournament in Linz, reached the semi-finals in Stuttgart, the final at the Madrid Open and the last eight in Rome.

Now, Andreeva is trying to stay calm ahead of the most important match of her career.

She said she had completed her leisure-time art project, a crystal painting.

"I was supposed to do our dog Rassy, so I finished it. Now I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to have to figure something out: what to do with my free time."

Victory on Court Philippe Chatrier would crown Andreeva as a new star in the women's game, and make her the youngest French Open champion since Monica Seles won a third consecutive title in 1992.

(A.Johnson--TAG)