A 12 months older, a 12 months wiser?
It seems to be the case with 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva. The Russian returns to the BNP Paribas Open as defending champion this 12 months, and that might usually be a cue for a teen like herself to emphasize out.
Not Andreeva. It could possibly be her new companion, the labradoodle named “Ressy” that she’s now touring with, or it could possibly be, effectively, that she’s simply sensible past her years.
Regardless of the motive, Andreeva says that she’s not going to let the stress of defending 1,000 factors this week hassle her. She’s simply been via the identical course of a number of weeks in the past in Dubai, the place she reached the quarterfinals.
She fortunately discovered that it wasn’t the tip of the world.
“Actually I believed that I might take into consideration that loads,” she stated throughout her media day press convention on Wednesday within the California desert. “I used to be anxious about defending factors in Dubai since Roland-Garros. So, you recognize, I used to be interested by that loads, however then truly after I got here to Dubai, the one factor I felt is the joy of being there once more, of feeling new feelings like being on the match as a defending champion.”
Andreeva, seeded eighth, will face both Solana Sierra or Peyton Stearns within the second spherical.
If the seeds maintain, she’s slated to face two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek within the quarterfinals.
Within the meantime, she had an enormous smile on her face as she made the media rounds on Wednesday. She shared a lunch with Jack Draper at an occasion known as the Champions Luncheon, then strolled by the match social media set. The smile by no means left her face.
Whether or not she will hold smiling all the way in which to subsequent Sunday—and within the course of change into the primary particular person to efficiently defend the Indian Wells title since Martina Navratilova in 1991—is one other story.
Whether or not she likes it or not, there’s a goal on her again.
An issue for one more day.
“It was all new to me, however I didn’t really feel the strain for some motive as I believed I might,” Andreeva reiterated. “And right here it’s the identical factor. I’m simply so excited to be right here as a defending champion, see my images nearly in every single place in each nook. It’s simply good to be right here once more, and now I don’t really feel any strain on defending factors.”
