Seventeen-year-old Mirra Andreeva stunned World No7 Elena Rybakina at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Friday, winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to become the youngest player to reach a WTA 1000 final.
Honestly, it's crazy because at first I was not very positive before coming to Dubai.
I was like: ‘Okay, well, I'm just going to play.’ As always, when you don't think about how you're going to play, you just play your best tennis, and in the end, it’s one of your best tournaments. I’m just really happy with the way I played and really happy to be playing my first finals.
Having already defeated 2022 Dubai finalist Marketa Vondrousova and World No2 Iga Swiatek earlier this week, Andreeva displayed remarkable resilience against Rybakina. Trailing 3-1 in the third set, she won the last five games to book a place in her first WTA 1000 final, where she will face Denmark’s Clara Tauson.
Tauson, who fought for nearly three hours to overcome No14 seed Karolina Muchova 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3, admitted she was feeling the physical toll.
I've never played so many matches in a row, so we'll see how I wake up – I don't think it's going to be great, but I'm going to try my best to keep it together for the final. I’ll have to give the physios a big gift when I'm done here because they've been working with me since the first round to try to keep me together.
Despite beating two-time Dubai champion Elina Svitolina and World No1 Aryna Sabalenka en route to the final, Tauson considers herself the underdog against Andreeva.
I think we're both going to be nervous as it's a big final, but she's obviously the favourite now. I was the favourite in the first round and then I haven't been the favourite since, so it's fine. She has to beat me; the pressure is on her.
