Asked if she was no longer an up-and-comer now that she has won a WTA 1000 title and made her Top 10 debut, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva toyed with the question just like she toys with many of her opponents these days. 

“Of course I'm going to be turning 18 soon, so, yes, I am becoming an old woman,” Andreeva said with a snicker. “I don't know if I can be, as you said, an up-and-comer.”

Deep down Andreeva, wise beyond her years and prodigiously talented, knows that the secret is out. She is a woman with a target on her back and it will likely be that way for the rest of her career. She appears to be just fine with it. 

It would be understandable if Andreeva was still on Cloud 9 after she became the youngest woman to ever win a WTA 1000 title (since 2009) by defeating three former Grand Slam champions in Dubai. Not her, though. 

“I like to think that what happened happened, and of course after my win in Dubai, it felt amazing,” she said. “I felt a lot of adrenaline, and I was of course super happy to win the tournament.

“But now, it's been almost two weeks, I think maybe even more. Now I have to prepare for this tournament, I have to show my best tennis here, as well.” 

Sounds like a coach’s dream if there ever was one. 

Less than a year after their partnership began, her coach Conchita Martinez can’t seem to say enough good things about the talented kid, who will face France’s Varvara Gracheva in second-round action on Friday at the BNP Paribas Open. 

“It feels great when you are coaching somebody and working on certain things, to see all of the improvements,” the former Wimbledon champion told BNPParibasopen.com. “You tell her to do one thing in a match and she does it and it works. Yes, it’s very gratifying. And that’s why it’s worth it to work with her. I see she’s sort of like a sponge, grabbing information and working on things. 

“For me it’s very important. With the time that she puts in, not only on the tennis court, with anything that I offer, she’s very mature about these things, for 17.” 

Andreeva has turned the head of pretty much everyone who has witnessed her skyrocket up the rankings ever since she hit the circuit two years ago. 

She reached her maiden Grand Slam semifinal last year at Roland-Garros, becoming the youngest player to reach a major semifinal since Martina Hingis in 1997. Last month, she became the youngest player to ever win a 1000-level title, since the format debuted in 2009. 

“She's so good naturally,” says three-time Grand Slam champion Lindsay Davenport. “She seems to know what's going to come back at her from her opponent. I just don't think you can teach that.”

Current players see that same stunning talent in Andreeva.

“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 just court sense, ability to compete,” says 2024 US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. “A lot of things you can't teach are already really strong and she's only going to get better.”

The 17-year-old also displays a grounded sensibility. She knows the work never stops. She believes that if you aren’t moving forward you are falling behind. 

“I have been working on a lot of stuff. I have been working on serving. I have been working on being a little bit more aggressive. Also, trying to defend better,” she says, listing all the areas that she plans to strengthen with the help of Hall of Famer Martinez and the rest of her team. 

Just over a year ago Andreeva barely knew of Martinez. Now they are indelibly united, a potentially game-changing player-coach pairing with limitless potential. 

“Of course it's super special to have her by my side,” she says of the former Wimbledon champion. “I remember last year [at Indian Wells] I saw her just walking around here, and at that time I didn't know her. I just saw one woman always looking at me, smiling, saying hi. I'm, like, okay, who is that?”

Martinez said it didn’t take long for the two to hit their stride. 

“From the first day the connection was there,” Martinez told BNP Paribasopen.com. “We have a good relationship. She can get so much better in every department, so it was like a fun project for me, and worth it to go full-on because I could tell she has a lot of potential.”

The Spaniard has stressed development in all areas, and it explains why Andreeva has improved mentally as well. 

“She's getting more mature emotionally,” Davenport observes. “I think a couple of years ago sometimes she was acting like 15 or 16. Imagine that. Now I think she's starting to totally accept that she belongs where she is.” 

For now, Andreeva trusts Martinez’s leadership and focuses on the work, knowing that the results will take care of themselves. 

“It’s amazing, we didn’t expect it to happen that soon,” Martinez says of Andreeva’s breakout success. “But when you do good work, not only in tennis but in many other departments, it pays off, that’s what we are seeing.”