Dubai WTA

[jimlosaltos]

17 yo Mirra Andreeva upset Iga from a break down, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 for her fifth career Top 10 victory. Her backhand DTL was extremely effective.

The teen had 10 aces to none for Iga, and held the Iga to only 51.1% points won on her supposedly improved first serve. Both players held 8 BPs, but but Mirra converted 4, Iga only 1.

Game "featured" a bad example of using video replay to check on whether Mirra touched the net. She had but the review stopped play for several mintues.

Both of the WTA's top 2 ranked players are out of the event. Sabalenka going out earlier to Tauson.

[jimlosaltos]

17 yo Mirra Andreeva won his first WTA 1000 title over 22 yo Clara Tauson 7-6(1), 6-1 becoming the youngest player ever to take the largest main tour title, place for 16 years -- one less than her age. WTA: "She is only the sixth teenager to win a WTA 1000 title. The others are -- no last names necessary -- Gauff, Swiatek, Andreescu, Bencic and Azarenka. Going back more than 30 years, Andreeva is the second teen, male or female, to win the title in Dubai -- after a guy named Nadal.

The points from her title make Mirra the third youngest player to make the WTA Top 10, putting her only days behind Maria Sharapova, and Nicole Vaidisova. Notice that all 3 are no flags.

Least anyone wonders how hard she had to work in Duba, Mirra beat Iga, the world number two, then beat Clara would had taken out the top seed, world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

My observation, Mirra does this despite having obvious areas in her game where she has room for huge improvement, such as her midcourse-to-net game, and recovery motional times. In the semifinal, Mira's DTL forehands and backhands both left Iga, arguably the best mover in the WTA flatfooted, and she out-served and out returned Iga.

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