An avid student of the sport, Mirra Andreeva is channelling former teenage world No.1s Martina Hingis and Steffi Graf in her quest for a maiden WTA 500 title at the Brisbane International.
On Friday, the 17-year-old had the edge over her idol Ons Jabeur 6-4 7-6(2) at Pat Rafter Arena in the quarterfinals and revealed she drew inspiration from watching YouTube footage of old-school stars – two of whom were rivals of her coach, Conchita Martinez.
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“I watch all kinds of tennis to be honest. I sometimes watch Martina Hingis and also Steffi Graf,” the eighth seed said. “I mean, they are legends, you know, so I just try to kind of look up to them and see what they do on court, maybe take some stuff with me to kind of try to play not the same way but to take some things that I like from them.”
On the comeback from a season of form and injury struggles, the 30-year-old Jabeur impressed as she reeled off three successive wins for the first time since Roland Garros last year before the youngest player in the draw had her measure for the second time in as many meetings on Australian soil.
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A year ago, Andreeva toppled the then-No.6 in the second round of the Australian Open.
“Honestly for me it was a really tough match, especially mentally, because it’s always hard to play against a person that you like. We all like Ons,” Andreeva said.
“There is no doubt about that so for me, first of all, it was hard to keep pushing and playing aggressive … because we all know that she’s very good at playing games – drop shots, slices – so my plan was just, you know, to keep playing aggressive, solid. I’m not sure that if this was consistent today but I tried.”
Andreeva awaits world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka or Czech Marie Bouzkova for a place in Sunday’s final.
Kalinina saves match point to deny Birrell in quarterfinals
Anhelina Kalinina will bid for her third WTA final after scraping past local wildcard Kimberly Birrell from match point down at the Brisbane International on Friday.
Winless in Australia last season, the 27-year-old was one point from defeat at 4-5 in the deciding set but rebounded to snatch the final three games 4-6 6-1 7-5 for her sixth WTA semifinal and only her second on hard court.
“Actually, I don’t even remember the match point because every ball was really hard to get,” the world No.55 said. “Thank you very much guys for being so loud. I was expecting that but really appreciate that you came to support anyway.
“I want to give credit to Kimberly because, like, wow what a match.
“I feel [like a] specialist now because normally when I arrive in Australia its so hard for me to win any match, so I’m really happy to be in the semis. I didn’t expect that.”
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Birrell, competing at her home base, had defeated only two top-50 opponents from 2021 to 2024, but had notched two wins already this week against such players, world No. 8 Emma Navarro and No.35 Anastasia Potapova.
For two hours and 40 minutes she showed grit and courage before she fell narrowly shy against the steely Ukrainian, a player who was ranked in the top 25 only 18 months ago.
Birrell was up to a career-high mark of world No.99 in the live rankings, while Kalinina moved on to a last-four clash with 21-year-old qualifier Polina Kudermetova, a 7-6(5) 6-3 winner over American Ashlyn Krueger.
“[Theres] no secret. My coach will maybe watch,” Kalinina said. “We’re going to talk about it later, depends who is going to win, but whoever is in the semifinal already is a very good player, dangerous, so we’re going to prepare as good as possible.”