Patience is not always a virtue inherent in teenagers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And Mirra Andreeva, who turned 18 at the end of April, has been in a hurry for all of her short professional life. She was the youngest player to crash the PIF WTA Rankings Top 10 in nearly two decades and recently won back-to-back WTA 1000s. Unapologetically aggressive, Andreeva is third on tour in winners — but also has struck the most unforced errors.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the No. 7-seeded Andreeva crafted a 6-2 6-4 second-round victory over qualifier Emiliana Arango on Friday at the Internazionali d\u2019Italia. It probably took longer than she would have liked (89 minutes), but it was Andreeva\u2019s first main-draw win in Rome.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe likes to grind and she puts a lot of balls back in the court,\u201d Andreeva said later of Arango. \u201cFor me, I find it not so comfortable — it\u2019s not like I have a choice. I have to create something on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Touch, tactics and triumph: Mirra Andreeva defeats Arango in Rome<\/p>\n
A little later, a former teenage phenomenon — in another testament to patience — won\u00a0her\u00a0first match in the Eternal City. Since winning the 2021 US Open, injuries and illness have been the leading headlines for Emma Raducanu, but she was a tidy 6-2, 6-2 winner over lucky loser Jil Teichmann.<\/p>\n
Previously, Raducanu\u2019s only appearance in Rome was a 2022 match that ended in retirement to Bianca Andreescu. She said it was the last time she played a match on outdoor clay — a period of three years.<\/p>\n
Raducanu served well, winning 33 of 52 service points, hit six aces and faced only one break point. It was Raducanu\u2019s third match of the season on clay — and only the 20th\u00a0of her entire career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI always said I think I had the potential to play really well on clay,\u201d Raducanu said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m there yet. But I\u2019m slowly kind of finding my feet. As I use my forehand, use the spins, if the serve improves I\u2019ll be able to be really good on this surface. One benefit I do have is I can play with variation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raducanu originally was scheduled to play No. 21 Ekaterina Alexandrova — a formidable opponent on clay with semifinal berths earlier this year in Charleston and Stuttgart. But Alexandrova pulled out before the match with a right shoulder injury, replaced by Teichmann, who lost in the last round of qualifying to Hailey Baptiste 7-6 (6), 7-5.<\/p>\n
Raducanu breezes past lucky loser Teichmann into Rome third round<\/p>\n
Afterward, Raducanu said she was happy she adjusted so quickly from the prospect of Alexandrova, a right-hander who likes to play quick, to the left-handed \u201cand tricky\u201d Teichmann. Raducanu now plays Veronika Kudermetova, a 7-6 (5), 7-5 winner over Amanda Anisimova, in a third-round match on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Andreeva grew up playing on clay more than any other surface. Still, going in she knew the slow red clay favored her opponent because her shots don\u2019t fire as swiftly through the court. This was compounded by Arango, a smooth-swinging, slick-slicing Columbian more than content to play rallies into the double digits.<\/p>\n
When Arango broke Andreeva\u2019s serve twice to open the second set, the expression on the face of Andreeva\u2019s coach Conchita Martinez quickly went from bemused to concerned. Eventually, though, Andreeva figured it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andreeva will play No. 30 Linda Noskova in a third-round match on Sunday, a player she\u2019s beaten two of three times. Noskova was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Sonay Kartal.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we played it was a very tough battle,\u201d Andreeva said. \u201cShe\u2019s also a teenager, very powerful player. It\u2019s a nice matchup and I think it\u2019s going to be entertaining for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opening up the court with three or four shots instead of the customary one or two, Andreeva would often win the point with a flat, fast backhand — or take a short ball with a forceful forehand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The difference could be seen in the crucible of break points: Andreeva converted six of 10, while Arango was three of nine. Andreeva, true to her statistical profile, finished with 28 winners and 31 unforced errors.<\/p>\n
Only World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka has more victories (19) in WTA 1000s this year than Andreeva (18).<\/p>\n
For someone so young, Andreeva has already developed a very strong urge to win the matches she\u2019s expected to. Arango, ranked No. 97, represented her ninth consecutive victory over a player ranked outside the Top 50; the last loss came to older sister Erika last fall in Wuhan.<\/p>\n
Arango is now 0-3 against Top 10 players.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patience is not always a virtue inherent in teenagers.\u00a0 And Mirra Andreeva, who turned 18 at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,661,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-88293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114479825669741161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88293","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=88293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}