Inside Mirra Andreeva's meteoric rise in 2025

Dozens of names could have come up in the WTA's season-opening social media video.

Who will reach her first major final in 2025? Who will make her top-10 debut? Who will win her first 1000-level tournament?

But there was one name said over and over by the players featured throughout the clip: Mirra Andreeva.

Three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur named her multiple times. "Everything is Mirra," she said.

Even Andreeva, 17, couldn't help but buy into her own hype: "I want to say myself," she said with a smile, on who would win their first 1000-level event. "I'm going to do everything possible for that."

Some seven weeks later, Andreeva made good on her audacious prediction. She won the trophy in Dubai and became the youngest player to win an 1000-level title -- the most prestigious after a Slam and the year-end WTA Finals. She then cracked the top 10 and reached a career-high of No. 9.

And the Russian teenager's momentum has yet to slow. On Tuesday, Andreeva became the youngest player since 2009 to reach the quarterfinals at the 1000-level BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in just over an hour.

"This is exactly where I wanted to be but I didn't think that it would happen this quickly," Andreeva told ESPN last week from the player's lounge at Indian Wells. "Last year I played here and I lost in the first round, then I had some health problems and I had to retire from Miami and I didn't think that a year after I would be able to win the biggest title of my career ... When I realized I won [in Dubai], I was like, 'Hell yeah.'

"When I was doing the press conference [after winning] and they told me I was already in the top 10, I'm like, 'Really?' Because that had been a goal for this year but I didn't think I would reach it until October or November, end of the year, but it was February and I'm already in the top 10. I'm like, 'Well, I guess I have to think of some new goals now.'"

While Andreeva said the questions about her new goals have been endless since her triumph in Dubai, it's nothing new. Nor is the praise or bold beliefs about her future. Andreeva showed she could compete with the best in the world in one of her very first WTA events.

Having received a wild card to the 1000-level Madrid Open in 2023, a 15-year-old Andreeva stunned the tennis world with a staggering run to the fourth round behind victories over Leylah Fernandez, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Magda Linette, claiming a number of "youngest ever" distinctions along the way. Behind her fearless on-court performances and her equally charming television interviews, Andreeva had formally introduced herself to the tennis world. The comparisons to other young phenoms -- including Coco Gauff, then 19 -- were immediate.

And she quickly proved the Madrid run was no fluke by reaching the third round at the French Open (losing to eventual finalist Gauff in three sets) and becoming the youngest player since Gauff to notch a fourth-round appearance at Wimbledon. By the end of the season, she had made it into the top 50. The expectations were high and the spotlight was bright but Andreeva was unfazed.

"Of course, it's nice when people talk about you and of course it's not nice when they talk not really good stuff, but it is what it is," Andreeva said. "You're going to get some good stuff and some bad stuff at the same time. So you just have to know that and it's just going to happen whether you want it or not."

Andreeva took it to another level in 2024, with her first major semifinals at the French Open, her first WTA title at the Iasi Open in July and an Olympic silver medal in doubles alongside Diana Shnaider as neutral athletes. She was ranked No. 16 by year's end.

She started working with former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martínez last season, and the two crafted a plan during the preseason of how Andreeva could continue her surge and reach the top 10 in 2025. While Andreeva was not far away, she would need to replicate much of her success in the new season in order to do it. A tall order with so many talented women vying for titles and ranking points every week.

But Andreeva wasted no time. In the first tournament of the year in Brisbane, she reached the semifinals in singles and won the doubles title with Shnaider. There was a fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open, and semifinal doubles runs in both Melbourne and Qatar.

In Dubai, where she only played singles because she and Shnaider inadvertently and comically missed the sign-in deadline, Andreeva put together her most impressive run. She defeated three major champions -- Marketa Vondrousova in the Round of 32, Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals and Rybakina in the semifinals -- en route to the final. With the title on the line, she escaped a challenging opening set and secured the victory over Clara Tauson, 7-6 (1), 6-1.

"At first, it was all adrenaline and then I felt a little bit like I was in euphoria, it was just not real," Andreeva told ESPN. "But then I realized that I won the freaking tournament and I just cherished the moments with my team."

Andreeva then went viral for shouting herself out in her victory speech on court. "Lastly, I want to thank me for never quitting and always believing in myself," she told the crowd.

Thank yourself for how far you've come 💜#DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/lwe2QuQ08x

The team, which included Martinez, went out for dinner afterwards to celebrate. Andreeva and Martinez talked about everything -- from Andreeva's feelings throughout the match to how nervous they both had felt (but didn't want to show) and to how proud Martinez was of her young pupil. And then Andreeva got back to work. While she knew Dubai was a milestone achievement, she didn't want to make too big of a deal of it.

"When I was a kid and traveling with my parents, every time I would win a tournament, we would celebrate by going out to dinner and I would get to drink a soda," Andreeva said. "Then and now, I know that I can celebrate for one, maybe two, days and then I have to get back to practice and prepare for the next tournament. I think that's why we all love tennis, [no matter if] you win a tournament or you lose a tournament, there's always next week and a new opportunity to win a tournament."

After her win in Indian Wells over Rybakina, the tournament's 2023 champion, Andreeva has now won her last nine matches and is 16-3 on the season thus far. She has impressed many of her peers along the way.

"It's incredible what she's been able to do at such a young age," world No. 4 Jessica Pegula said last week. "I think she's gonna win a lot of tournaments and a lot of matches for the next ten years ... She's fairly tall but moves really well. I think she has a really good serve for someone at such a young age. I think her court sense, ability to compete. A lot of things. A lot of things you can't teach are already really strong and she's only going to get better."

Andreeva, who will turn 18 in April, will next face Elina Svitolina, the No. 23 seed from Ukraine, on Thursday with a chance to reach her first semifinals at Indian Wells. For Andreeva, it will be a full circle moment because Svitolina was one of the first WTA players she watched in person, in a Round of 16 match versus Simona Halep at the 2021 US Open. The experience changed everything for Andreeva.

"I was watching their match and I was, like, 'Yes, I'm going to play here one day,'" she told reporters on Tuesday. "[I thought] 'Okay, I don't know with who, but I'm going to play on this stadium.' And I think they played on -- what is it? -- Louis Armstrong Stadium. So I was, like, 'Yes, I'm going to play here.'"

It will be the first meeting between Svitolina and Andreeva. Because Svitolina has refused to shake hands with Russian players since the invasion of Ukraine three years ago, Andreeva was asked about it on Tuesday. "Yeah, of course it's not easy, but, you know, I have played maybe four or five matches against Ukrainian players," she said. "And me, I just try not to think about it. I just try to focus on my game, to do my routines, to prepare myself that it's not going to be easy."

Calling Svitolina a "fighter," Andreeva said she would trust in Martinez to prepare her fully for the match and the "small details" she would need to win. After finishing her match later in the evening on Tuesday, Andreeva was happy to have Wednesday to recover and have some time to relax at her hotel.

She had said before the tournament began that she hoped to have some time to go to the nearby outlet stores, in addition to doing her schoolwork. She's just a few months away from completing her high school coursework online but first must pass exams in her remaining four classes -- math, geography, and then her two "easiest ones" Russian and English -- to graduate. She said she was slightly worried about it, but was thrilled to be almost finished.

Her next goal on the tennis court? To reach the top five, but Andreeva said that was mainly because it was the first thing she could think of. If she were to win Indian Wells, she would likely be right outside of that, and it will be in striking distance over the next few months regardless of if she wins the title or not. Beyond that, she's not sure but is excited to figure it out.

"Oh God, actually I didn't think about [anything past this season]," she said. "I think every tennis player wants to win as many tournaments [as possible], to have many Slams, to be No. 1. But I also want to be remembered as a great tennis player, as a person who always fights and never gives up. But I don't even know what I want to be and where I want to be in five years. That feels so far away.

"I'm just [taking it] one week at a time right now."