AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2026

Mirra Andreeva

Press Conference

An interview with:

MIRRA ANDREEVA

THE MODERATOR: Mirra, welcome to Melbourne. You've had a great week in Adelaide. Talk to us how you are feeling and how your training has been going.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah, obviously it's good to come from a great week in Adelaide. I've already had my first practice on the Melbourne courts. Feeling good, and can't wait for the tournament to start tomorrow.

Q. Considering you finished last season, and I know you are starting this one, I'm wondering if this winter there has been a sit-down and we need to change this and change that?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Before starting the pre-season me and Conchita, we talked and we touched based on a couple of things that we want to improve, that we want to work on.

And, yeah, we just had like a quick sit-down just to talk what I feel I have to improve, what she feels I have to improve, and then after that we just started to practice.

It was a long and a good pre-season, but, yeah, I think that it was, from what I have been seeing the last couple of days, it was not bad. It was working.

Q. A mindset thing or a tennis thing?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Both. I think both because if you only work on tennis but not on your mind, then it's not really going to work. So you have to balance between these things.

Q. I was wondering if I could ask about the jacket that you wore in Adelaide. Whose idea did you make it? When did you make it? Is it something that fans can expect to buy their own Mirra Andreeva jacket?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Maybe it's too early to talk about that. I had this jacket right after Indian Wells. After Indian Wells I didn't win anything until Adelaide. And I was carrying it in my suitcase for every single tournament I would go.

But yeah, it was a nice present from Nike team when I won the two 1000 tournaments. And just since then it was sitting in my suitcase waiting for the moment. And then, yeah, in Adelaide when I went to the final, I put it in my bag just like, you know, on the bottom, just there, just to have it, but not to forget it was there. Luckily I got a chance to wear it for the first time.

Q. Did you watch tapes of yourself from October when you were upset and on the court? How do you think of that person compared with the person that we've seen this week? It's like two completely different people. I understand people, you know, sometimes they're upset, sometimes they're happy, things happen, but at the same time has it been hard to think about that and reconcile that? Do you know that word?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah.

Q. Yeah, okay.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I watched also before pre-season before starting to put a lot of work in, I watched the videos of my last matches. And, yeah, there is a huge difference I can say to what I was doing on the court then, on those Chinese tournament, the Chinese swing, and how I played and how I am on the court even yesterday.

So yeah, there was also a lot of talking done during the off-season, a lot of work that we put in the off-season tennis-wise and mental-wise as well. So yeah, I feel like we are two different people if we compare me and me now and me in October.

But I just hope that I will be able to keep this kind of mindset for as long as I can because now I feel like, with the win especially, I feel more and more confident in what I do on the court. Obviously, when you feel confident you go for your shots more, you are more brave on the court. So I just hope that I'll be able to stay in this mindset for a long period of time.

Q. Can I ask you why do you think it made you so sad? I mean, you've lost matches before, you have made errors before.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah.

Q. Why do you think at that point the game was making you so sad?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, it was more probably because I didn't really match my expectations that I was expecting things from myself. I was expecting myself to play better at some point. I saw it didn't work and I was not playing as well as I thought I would.

Obviously then I started to be mad at myself and also, like, all those things, I don't know, when an opponent plays well or you miss another shot and all of that goes into a big snowball and keeps rolling and rolling and rolling. After, you know, at some point you really have to find a chance to escape to go on the side, not for that snowball to kill you. So yeah...

Maybe I did it in time, hopefully, I guess. But I don't know. For now it's good. It's better.

Q. This is a very specific question. I noticed when you serve and you pick up the ball, you inspect the ball more than any other player that I've seen. People do it in general. I'm curious what you are looking for?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I'm looking for a better-looking ball because when I was just going into the tour, I saw pro players like looking at the ball. They were like, No, I don't like this ball and I want another one. I never knew why they did that.

When I got to the tour I thought I'm going to do the same. At first I was randomly picking balls. Now I look for the one that looks prettier (smiling), that looks more new.

If I look at them at one side where it's 2026, and if I see that they look the same. Then I turn to the other side where it's AO. Then I look which one that looks better. The one that looks worse I throw it away and I pick the better one.

Q. You have been the young phenom on the tour for a while. You are super young. You were 16 already. I wonder playing Victoria Mboko, after the year she had, she's in your shoes, but was it weird to see somebody your age doing the same because you have been on your own for a while?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I don't know. It was not weird. It was more like obviously at some point it would have happened. When I saw her play amazing tennis last year, winning a Montreal tournament, and obviously I know her for a very, very long time, she's one of my good friends as well, it was more nice and more exciting just to see her do well.

You know, eventually we got to share the final together. I think that if we both continue playing on a high level, we both continue playing well, I think we have so many more finals in the future unfortunately that we have to play against each other.

And yeah, for me it was more exciting to see another player, another good friend of mine, do well.

Q. Another random question from me. One of the unique parts of tennis is that you share the locker room with players you then go out and play against. I'm sure you're used to it by now. Is that ever awkward or weird? I don't know, maybe you beat someone and your lockers are next to each other and you're around them a lot, does things like that ever happen?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, when I win, when I beat the person, and then we meet in the locker room, and then our lockers are next to each other, I feel a little bad, I feel awkward.

But then when I lose, I don't care. When I lose I feel like she should feel awkward maybe. Nah, I'm okay. If I lose, I don't care who's around me, I'm just going to do my thing. I'm going to be probably mad, look onto the floor, and then I'm going to do my stuff and I'm going to leave.

Yeah, when I win, it's like I'm trying, I don't know, to be quiet, not be too happy around the person that I beat.

Q. And before a match, what is that like?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Before the match nothing really changes. Obviously you greet each other, you say Hi, how are you? Obviously there are some girls that don't do that, which also is fine for me. But I'm the person, for me it wouldn't matter if I play against the person or if I don't play against a certain person, I would always say hi as if I would have done on any other day, you know.

So before the match, it's me personally, it's always the same for me.