"Her preparation is good enough": Andy Roddick backs Mirra Andreeva to become world number one soon

Russia’s Mirra Andreeva has received high praise from the former world number one Andy Roddick. The 17-year-old is already regarded as the one for future and has already produced some incredible performances on the court.

Andreeva has recently been featured in the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships, where she lifted the title after beating Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the final in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-1. During her route to the final, she defeated the former world number one Poland’s Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinal in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-3. In the semifinal, she defeated Elena Rybakina with a score of 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Former world number one Murray has been recently quoted in a report where he praised Andreeva for her incredible performances. The one-time Grand Slam winner was of the opinion that she has all the tools to become the world number one soon.

“Mirra Andreeva is going to be number one in the world at some point,” said Roddick. “I watched her more this week continuously – because normally it’s in a Slam. But she serves so much better than people give her credit for and it’s only going to get better. What I worried about was that she is not one of the physical phenom specimens of a [Jennifer] Capriati or a [Lindsay] Davenport or a Venus [Williams] or a Serena [Williams]. The one I can think of who is a phenom not in the too distant past is [Martina] Hingis, who then got overpowered. So Andreeva, is she going to be able to create enough pace to not get overpowered by [Aryna] Sabalenka or Swiatek? She has beaten both of them. She is an elite mover already, she creates enough pace and what I am going to talk about that nobody does.”

He continued by saying: “Her ability to play against people’s movement makes her shots bigger. She doesn’t have to go big to go through you. Her preparation is good enough where she can pull the ripcord and play behind the women that she’s playing against consistently. And if the rally builds she can stay in it and tee up. She has options. IQ beyond her years – Conchita Martinez has done an amazing job guiding the ship. But she serves great. I was watching her and thinking why is nobody talking about this? Maybe it is like it can improve things and she has 30% runway in physicality, she is going to get bigger, stronger and faster. It’s not as if it is going to go the other way.”