Under great pressure from the French audience, the 17-year-old Russian tennis player had a way to turn pressure into motivation to win.

Mirra Andreeva, a 17-year-old Russian tennis player, turned the audience’s boos into a source of motivation to advance to the first Roland Garros quarterfinals of her career. In the match against host player Varvara Gracheva in round 4 of Roland Garros on June 3, Andreeva won convincingly with a score of 7-5, 6-1, despite the enthusiastic support of the audience for her opponent. French player

Andreeva “learned” from Djokovic to turn pressure into motivation, winning her first Roland Garros quarterfinal ticket

Andreeva, who is considered Russia’s “new Maria Sharapova”, has proven her ability to overcome pressure on a big playground, where many other big tennis players find it difficult to have a stable mentality.

After the match, the 17-year-old girl shared with Marion Bartoli in an on-field interview: “It’s always difficult to play against a friend and opponent who knows you very well. I knew that it would be the match was difficult, not only technically but also mentally, and I was prepared for everything.”

Andreeva and Gracheva are close friends, they have often trained together since they were young tennis players. Gracheva, born in Russia, but naturalized, will play for France from 2023. This made the audience at Suzanne Lenglen enthusiastically support Gracheva, but Andreeva turned that to her advantage.

She explained that every time the audience chanted the name “Varvara,” she imagined that they were calling her name. This psychological strategy helps Andreeva maintain her spirit and continue to compete strongly. Finally, the audience was conquered by the talent of the “new Sharapova”, and they began to cheer “Mirra, Mirra”.

Andreeva’s actions are reminiscent of Novak Djokovic, who used similar tactics to convert audience support into motivation for himself in the 2019 Wimbledon final when he faced Roger Federer.

With a strong fighting spirit and the ability to cope with pressure, Andreeva is gradually asserting herself as one of the bright young talents in the world of tennis. She is expected to become the hope of Russian tennis, doing the same things or better than Sharapova.

In her first Roland Garros quarterfinal appearance, Andreeva faced world No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka. This match will take place at around 8:45 p.m. today, June 5.

Andreeva, ranked 38 in the world, became the second youngest player to reach the quarterfinals of Roland Garros since 2000.

And here are the 5 youngest players to reach the quarterfinals of this tournament in the 21st century: Sesil Karatantcheva (15 years 288 days, 2005), Andreeva (17 years 27 days, 2024), Lina Krasnoroutskaya (17 years 29 days, 2001), Sharapova (17 years 35 days, 2004), and Nicole Vaidisova (17 years 36 days, 2006).