Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva reached the WTA Finals championship match on Saturday after defeating American Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-4 in Indian Wells, California. The 19-year-old, who won her first major at Roland Garros this year, remains unbeaten in her debut at the event, having won her first four matches in straight sets.
Andreeva, the tournament's third seed, utilized heavy groundstrokes, strong serving, and tireless defense to overcome the fifth-ranked Pegula in their first career meeting. During the opening set, Andreeva broke serve to take a 5-3 lead after pouncing on a looping shot from Pegula and hitting a forehand winner. Although Pegula earned break points while Andreeva served for the set, Pegula shanked an overhead and Andreeva took the set two points later.
In the second set, Pegula broke to take a 3-1 lead, but Andreeva broke back immediately with a deft volley. Andreeva broke again to lead 4-3 and eventually sealed the win when a Pegula backhand sailed long on match point. The match lasted one hour and 25 minutes.
Reflecting on the win, Andreeva said, “It was a tough match. You have to work hard to win a point against her. She is going to leave everything out there and make your life complicated, so I wanted to make her life complicated as well today.” She also told Tennis Channel, “I think I can be very proud of myself. I'm very happy with how I'm playing. I'm very happy also with how I deal with the pressure. I knew this match had a lot on the line.”
Andreeva added to Tennis Channel, “I'm happy with how composed I tried to be throughout the match. I tried not to let her in too much. In the second set I kind of did, but I'm happy that I was able to break her right back and try to play more and more aggressive. Super happy with today and ready for one last push for tomorrow.”
Andreeva is assured of rising from third to second in the world rankings with this victory. She is the youngest player to reach the final since Maria Sharapova in 2004 and is the only player besides Serena Williams and Chris Evert to win her first four matches at the event in straight sets.
On Saturday, sixth seed Elina Svitolina reached the final by defeating Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova 6-2, 6-1 in just over an hour. Svitolina took the first set with a crosscourt backhand winner and raced to a 5-0 lead in the second set before winning on match point.
Svitolina, who has made the final in all three of her appearances at the eight-player championships, will face Andreeva on Sunday. While Andreeva holds a 2-1 lead in their head-to-head matchups, Svitolina noted, “It’s going to be another big challenge, of course, and I feel I have to do my homework. But I feel I’m a completely different player from the first match. I was not playing the right way. I will give it my best shot.”
The $10 million tournament was moved from Riyadh to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden due to the US-Israeli war with Iran.
