AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 19, 2026

Mirra Andreeva

Press Conference

M. ANDREEVA/D. Vekic

4-6, 6-3, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Mirra, congratulations. Obviously a very tough opponent. How did you get out of that first-round match to progress through?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah, she started pretty well in the beginning. I also felt like I started well, but she was very aggressive, she was going for her shots. She hit a lot of winners.

After I just tried to stay in the match, do my thing, stick to the plan. In the end it worked.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Donna has won a lot of matches like this in the past against big players in the first round. When you found out you had to play her, how much did you know of her history coming into this?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I played against her once in Beijing. It was also three sets. I knew that obviously she's a tough player, but I was still playing a tournament in Adelaide. I tried not to really pay attention to the draw in Melbourne because I still had to focus on what's going on here because I had a tournament to play.

But yeah, when I saw the draw, the first-round opponent is Donna, I was like, Well, it's not the easiest draw, I would say, because she's obviously a very experienced player. She plays pretty good.

Yeah, I was not pretty happy when I saw the draw.

Q. I think that was the third time this year you've lost the first set in one of your matches. A couple of times I've seen you go a break down, then work your way back. Best-of-three sets, has it been something that has changed over the last year that has helped you to not panic if you go behind?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah, I feel like because all of you guys, you start to notice it as well, I feel like we put a lot of work into that. Obviously the whole past year I was still working on the little details, no matter what happens, to always stick to the plan, not to lose the focus or not to get into the panic mode when something doesn't go according to the plan.

Now I feel like I really understand that it's kind of easier for me to focus on that when I'm playing a match, I don't know, maybe because I'm finally getting smarter (smiling). It's just easier for me to realize that the panic won't help here.

The only thing that's going to help is if I stay calm, I listen to what my team says, to what Conchita says. The only chance that I have to win the match is to do the right things, the things that I was told by my coach and that's it.

Q. In what way are you finally getting smarter?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: In some ways. For example, now what I've said that it's easier for me to understand and to realize what's going on on court and how to react or not react on certain situations.

I feel like I've also maybe gaining a little bit more experience by being on the tour. I really feel like I'm changing a little bit. I don't waste energy, for example, on some things. I'm getting smarter also because I just do what my team says now. I'm also a little bit lazy to fight against them, you know, to do my thing. They told me to go, I go. They told me to stay, I stay.

Maybe in this kind of ways, yeah, I just became a little smarter and just listen to what they say.

Q. In the past you would fight it more?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: In the past, I'm still a teenager, everything was kind of new to me. I just wanted to do things my way sometimes. Sometimes it would work. Sometimes it wouldn't work.

Now I just don't care. I do whatever they say and whatever they ask me to, and that's it.

Q. Your next opponent is Maria Sakkari. Your thoughts on that match?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Maria, she's a very experienced player. I think she's a hitter as well, she likes to play aggressive. I never actually watched, like, a full match of hers. We've practiced once only in Paris.

I do have an idea of how she plays, but I wouldn't say that I know her pretty well. From now on it's Conchita's job to tell me whatever I have to do on the next match.

Q. A question about Aryna Sabalenka. Sometimes world No. 1s can be closed off. She's very social, filming TikToks. What does it mean to have a world No. 1 who is as accessible as Aryna appears to be?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I think it's great because she's very active on social media, as you said. She shows a lot of the things that are going on on tour.

I would be honest, I do kind of like to watch her stories. It's pretty interesting. She does a good job of keeping kind of the mood in the social media of, like, being funny and doing a lot of activities with the fans, just keeping the fans in touch when she's not playing tournaments. Yeah, I think it's great.

Also, I think that all of the people are different. For example, when Iga was the No. 1 in the world, we all know she's more like a quiet person. She does everything well on the court. I feel like she's maybe more closed.

I think we are different people. She is kind of, I don't know, active. Aryna is active and likes to talk a lot. She does TikToks and videos.

There is a place for everyone. I don't know. I'm open to whoever is doing whatever they want.

Q. Speaking of social media, of course social media has very good aspects, but there's a side, some players get like hate messages. Few days ago Kasatkina talked about whenever she goes to the match, she makes sure to turn off the message switch. How do you deal with that kind of hate messages or bad aspects of social media?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, obviously in the beginning when I just got to the tour, it was pretty hard because it was all new to me. When I saw the bad message, I clicked on it, I started to investigate who was this person, why did this person text me, all of that.

After with time I realized that everyone gets these kind of messages. Even though I think when you win the match you can also get a bad message, I don't know, for whatever reason the person decided to text you the message of any kind.

I just try not to be on social media too much. I sometimes repost stories. I post some photos. But other than that I really try to turn off my phone and, I don't know, do something else and not to spend too much time there.