{"id":143471,"date":"2025-05-30T07:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T07:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/143471\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T07:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T07:01:10","slug":"caroline-wozniacki-names-the-wta-youngster-who-she-thinks-is-a-dark-horse-to-win-the-french-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/143471\/","title":{"rendered":"Caroline Wozniacki names the WTA youngster who she thinks is a ‘dark horse’ to win the French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2025 French Open continues to entertain as the stars of the WTA Tour battle it out for glory in Paris.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In less than two weeks\u2019 time, we\u2019ll have crowned our second Grand Slam winner of the year at the French Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Australian Open in January, it was Madison Keys<\/a> who lifted the trophy, taking down world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final.<\/p>\n

\"MadisonPhoto by Graham Denholm\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A defeated finalist in Melbourne, Sabalenka<\/a> is being tipped by many to challenge for the title in Paris, alongside her biggest rival and three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n

Several other players who have enjoyed strong clay seasons, including Coco Gauff<\/a> and Jasmine Paolini, could also be in with a chance of victory next Saturday on Court Philippe Chatrier.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an 18-year-old star, however, who former Grand Slam winner, Caroline Wozniacki<\/a>, thinks is a \u2018dark horse\u2019 to win this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

Caroline Wozniacki picks Mirra Andreeva as her \u2018dark horse\u2019 to win the 2025 French Open<\/p>\n

Speaking on TNT Sports, the 2018 Australian Open<\/a> champion shared her thoughts on Russia\u2019s Mirra Andreeva.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love watching her play in general. She is a young player, she has a great attitude, she improves all the time,\u201d said Wozniacki.<\/p>\n

\"CarolinePhoto by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI have practiced with her quite a few times actually, and I thought earlier last year there were some balls on the forehand and her serves weren\u2019t consistent enough, but all of a sudden she has added pop to her first serve and on forehand she hits more through the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo she is consistently improving. She moves really well. She has great tennis IQ for someone so young and not having as much experience as these other players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dane then predicted how far Andreeva<\/a> could go at this year\u2019s French Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is not a fully complete player at this point, but she could be,\u201d said Wozniacki.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is so much fun to watch, and I think she could be the dark horse to win this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Petchey then weighed in with his thoughts on Andreeva\u2019s improvements, having watched her practice with Emma Raducanu<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n

\"MarkPhoto by Tim Clayton via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has gotten better as a tennis player. I mean her serve, Emma [Raducanu] practiced with her in Rome, and her serve has got better,\u201d said Petchey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a lot of lift out there. Her forehand has a bit of pop on it. Still on the backhand side, the top players don\u2019t get as scared going to that particular wing, but great coach in Conchita [Martinez], they get on great, this is a long journey, and to have Conchita on the bag will be a great help to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a great kid, she is enjoying this world as much as she can with all the pressure that is coming her way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mirra Andreeva reacts after \u2018tough\u2019 second-round win over Ashlyn Krueger<\/p>\n

Continuing on her way in Paris, Andreeva beat American star Ashlyn Krueger, 6-3, 6-4, to secure her spot in the third round.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

During her on-court interview, Andreeva reflected on the match, highlighting the area of her game she \u2018struggled\u2019 with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis match wasn\u2019t easy, I lost to her at the US Open, so I knew this match would be tough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a very powerful and aggressive player, so I knew that I had to play very good today, I just tried to do everything I could.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suffered, struggled a little bit with my serve, but I am happy that I found a way in the end, stayed calm, and pushed myself to fight until the end, and tried to bring my best level on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n\nPlayer<\/strong><\/td>\nAces<\/strong><\/td>\nDouble faults<\/strong><\/td>\n1st Serve %<\/strong><\/td>\nWin % on first serve<\/strong><\/td>\nWin % on second serve<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMirra Andreeva<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n54%<\/td>\n73%<\/td>\n65%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAshlyn Krueger<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n64%<\/td>\n56%<\/td>\n38%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Serving stats from Mirra Andreeva v Ashlyn Krueger<\/p>\n

The world number six then said how she felt playing on Court Simonne-Mathieu, and shared her appreciation to the fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy a lot playing on this court, especially when I play on the stadiums,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have nice memories on this court because two years ago in 2023 I played on this court and I won, it was also my first time playing in the third round after, so this court brings a lot of nice memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy that today I got to play on this court again and qualify for the third round.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I can say that playing here in front of you guys is amazing, you always support a lot, and the atmosphere is amazing. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I maybe suffer a bit when you chant before my serve, but it\u2019s nice because after I feel a lot of energy and it pumps me up a lot, so thank you so much for coming and supporting me today, it means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andreeva will return to take on either Yulia Putintseva or Joanna Garland in her third-round match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 French Open continues to entertain as the stars of the WTA Tour battle it out for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[61158,5066,18388,79,1068,16,15,5069],"class_list":{"0":"post-143471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-caroline-wozniacki","9":"tag-french-open","10":"tag-mirra-andreeva","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114595501504034326","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}