Andreeva: "I am a completely different person from October"
Mirra Andreeva explains what has changed on her side to progress so quickly: "We did a lot of tennis and mental work during the preseason".
Fresh off the WTA Adelaide 2026, a tournament she won, Mirra Andreeva landed in Melbourne with very little time to completely shift focus and get into Grand Slam mode. After a stellar week, the young Russian player arrives at the Australian Open 2026 as the eighth seed.
With limited time to spare, Mirra Andreeva will kick off her Melbourne campaign against Donna Vekic. A day before her debut, the 18-year-old tennis player attended the press conference to discuss pressure, expectations, and the significant transformation she underwent in recent weeks, a process she worked on with Conchita during the preseason.
"Before starting the preseason, Conchita and I talked and addressed a couple of aspects we want to improve and work on. We briefly sat down to discuss what I believe I need to improve, what she thinks I need to improve, and then we started training. It was a long and good preseason, but yes, I believe that, from what I've seen these last few days, it wasn't bad. It worked. If you only work on tennis and not the mind, it won't work; you have to find a balance between both," confessed Mirra Andreeva at the Media Day of the Australian Open 2026.
Mirra Andreeva and a radical change in her tennis she hopes to see at the Australian Open 2026
"There's a huge difference between what I was doing on the court back then, on the Asian tour, and how I played and felt on the court even yesterday. We also talked a lot during the preseason, did a lot of tennis and mental work during the preseason. I feel like we are two different people if we compare the one now and the one from October. I just hope to maintain this mindset for as long as possible because now, especially with the victory, I feel more confident in what I do on the court. Obviously, when you feel secure, you try your shots more, you are braver."
Why was Andreeva so upset on the court?
"It was probably more because I didn't meet my expectations, I expected things from myself. I expected to play better at some point. I saw it wasn't working, and I wasn't playing as well as I thought. Then I started getting mad at myself. Then at some point, you really have to find a chance to escape to one side, not to let that snowball kill you. Perhaps I did it in time, luckily, but I don't know. For now, it's better."
The ball and the serve
"I look for the prettiest ball because, when I started on the circuit, I saw that professional players liked to look at the ball and said, 'No, I don't like this ball, I want another one.' I never knew why. When I got on the circuit, I thought I would do the same. At first, I chose the balls randomly. Now I look for the one that looks prettiest, the one that seems newer. If I look at them on one side, where the 2026 is, and see that they look the same, then I look on the other side, where the AO is, then I see which one looks better. The one that looks worse, I discard and choose the best one."
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Andreeva: "Soy una persona completamente diferente a la de octubre"