"She is the modern version" - Andrea Petkovic compares current WTA star to tennis great Martina Hingis

With so much talent on the WTA tour, it comes as no surprise that several rising stars have a similar style to their predecessors. Retired German player Andrea Petkovic was quick to draw a comparison between Swiss great Martina Hingis and in-form Russian star Mirra Andreeva.

Andreeva has been on a tear this season, winning two consecutive WTA 1000 events in Dubai and Indian Wells. However, the 17-year old finally saw her 13-match winning streak come to an end at the ongoing Miami Open, where she fell in three sets to American Amanda Anisimova in the third round.

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Petkovic likens Andreeva to former Grand Slam champion

Hingis burst onto the tennis scene in the late 1990's, winning her maiden Grand Slam title at the 1997 Australian Open at just 16 years of age. The Swiss superstar would go on to dominate the WTA for several years, ending her career with five Grand Slam singles titles.

In an episode of the Becker Petkovic podcast, Petkovic spoke on the similarity between Hingis and Andreeva.

"For those who may not have seen her play yet, she [Mirra Andreeva] is a bit like a modern Martina Hingis,” said the former World No.9. “In the sense of, she has a lot of game intelligence, is a very good counter player, one of the best-passing strokes on the tour at the moment, so attacking against her, you have to have a lot of courage because she is so precise in her passing strokes.
“But she is the modern version, which means she can also pick up the pace, especially with the backhand down the line, which she plays out of nowhere. She’s incredibly good at the defense, she can really turn defensive positions into offensive ones and she has a really good serve."

“[Mirra] Andreeva has arrived, we all have to remember the name,” added cohost Boris Becker.

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