Mirra Andreeva – Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: History-making evening for you tonight, Mirra. Tell us how you’re feeling.

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yeah, of course it feels great. I’ve been dreaming of having a press conference with a trophy by my side, so finally it happened (smiling).

But I saw winners drinking a glass of champagne. It’s a pity that I’m still 17. Soon I’m going to be turning 18, in the end of April. I hope that I will manage to win another tournament, and there I’m going to have my first glass of champagne in the press conference.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are you feeling today after the win? What was your mindset going into the match?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I told myself that I’m a finalist already. If I don’t do anything, I already have a smaller trophy. I have to choose if I really want to commit on 100% and do my best and handle all the nerves and all the pressure that I felt, or I can just not give up but I can be not strong enough and let all those thoughts and pressure kill me.

I chose to be 100% mentally today. I didn’t feel great tennis-wise on the court. I felt like I’ve been playing a lot of balls to the middle. She was just going for it. She was killing the ball. I felt like I was always defending and I was always down in the score.

So when I managed to win the first set, I felt like, Well, okay, this is I think one of the first times when I actually lead in the score. That gave me a bit of confidence.

Of course, not without any luck I won 6-1 in the third. We’ve had a lot of long, long games. She had a lot of break points and game points.

I’m just super happy that it all went my way today.

Q. You said you wanted to be top 10 at the end of the season. Now that it’s February and you have become the first 17-year-old since 2007 to be a top-10 player, do you change your goals now?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I haven’t thought about it until right now. I don’t know.

Now when you enter top 10 and the higher your ranking is, the slower and longer it’s going to take for you to be even higher because the difference in the points is very, very short, very small.

I think that if I win another tournament, I’m going to be top 8. If I win another tournament, I can still be top 8 and I can just stay there. I think it’s going to be hard to enter top 5.

This is the exact goal that I’m going to set for myself, to be top 5 by the end of the year. I’m very curious if I will be able to achieve it.

Q. Talk to us a little bit about your relationship with Conchita. Is she like a friend to you? What kind of relationship is that?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I like that we have I would say friendly to not hateful (smiling). We can be hard on each other. Of course, outside of the court I feel like, yeah, we have friendly relationship.

What I like is that we both know how to separate those friendly relationship. When we’re on the court, we’re not friends to each other. I know that she’s my coach, that I have to be respectful, that I have to listen to what she says because that’s what helps me.

If I’m going to start thinking that she’s my friend, we’re all friendly, she’s not really my coach, I’m not going to take her serious, then I think this is the worst that can happen.

A couple of times I had to remind myself to keep it down because I remember a few times it was… I was a bit on the limit. But yeah, I’ve learned the hard way that on the court we’re not friends, she’s my coach. She helps me to win. It’s just going to stay like this.

Q. Earlier in the week you shared a harrowing story about the negativity of dealing with fans. Do you remember a positive interaction, the first time someone recognized you, a specific memory?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I wouldn’t say that I have a specific memory. Of course, as long as you win, everyone is super, super happy. They’re super proud of you. They find you inspiring and they talk about you a lot. I see a lot of posts, a lot of photos and videos that people talk about me, comments, everything.

But as soon as you lose, nobody’s there and everyone starts hating. Everyone starts writing hateful and bad messages to you. That’s I think the sport. Everyone is dealing with that.

I just hope that maybe somehow we can all deal with that and it’s going to go away. But I don’t think so because this is life and this is just happening. It’s just like this.

Yeah, of course now I won the tournament, so I don’t think I will see even one hateful message. But I can imagine that some people maybe wrote to Iga or to Elena or to Clara as well. They write, like, so many bad messages after each time you lose.

Yeah, but for now I hope that I’m not going to see any hateful messages.

Q. Do you tune out positive and negative or…

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Me, I’m just trying to spend as less times a possible on social media. I don’t see a lot of positive messages and I don’t see a lot of hateful messages.

Of course, sometimes when I’m on my phone, notifications, they keep coming. I see people commenting, some photos. Sometimes it can be positive, sometimes it can be negative.

But I just try to spend less time on Instagram. I just answer people that I know and I know they care about me. I only answer people that I know and that’s it.

I’m trying to not spend a lot of time.

Q. Where are you based now?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Honestly, I think it’s pretty complicated for tennis players. Yeah, we’re practicing in south of France. I’ve been coming to Barcelona where Conchita lives. We are practicing here in Dubai. I think, well, most of the time we practice here before to go to Australia. I don’t know, if you need to go to the United States, it’s also pretty comfortable to practice here. We even sometimes practice in United States because sometimes it’s just more comfortable.

I cannot say that we have, like, a base where we always come and train and leave our stuff. We just travel around the world. We’re everywhere. I think, well, that’s what most of the tennis players do.

Q. In terms of this week, Clara was saying playing at that high level for six, seven days in a row, your body is broken. What is the takeaway for you this week?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: I’ve been playing some good tennis a couple of matches. I think my best match would be against Iga because I locked in completely mentally and tennis-wise as well on that match. I’ve been playing one of my best tennis.

It’s easy to be confident and it’s easy to play good when everything goes your way, when you feel like the ball is flying, when you feel like you hit a lot of winners and everything is just going your way.

I would say for me, the hardest part is to still be positive and to force yourself to be 100% mentally when something doesn’t go your way.

For me, today that was exactly what happened because I didn’t feel great on court. I missed some shots that I usually don’t miss. Yeah, just told myself, Well, you can either let that negativity come into your head and kill you or you can choose to be 100% mentally and fight for every point. If something doesn’t go your way, okay, fine, you forget about it, play one point at a time.

I’ve been listening to a lot of LeBron James interviews. What he said is it’s easy to be confident and to play good when everything goes your way. What makes you a champion is when you’re giving your best when you don’t feel great.

That’s what I tried to do today.

Q. Six, seven days of high-level tennis. What’s next for you in Dubai? Food? Anything you want to explore first?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do because I don’t know when we’re going to leave. Yeah, I don’t know what are our plans. I’m going to ask my dad if they thought about buying the ticket. If yes, then when. I have to pack my bags. It’s a lot of stuff. I hate packing.

Yeah, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Honestly I would like to spend maybe one more full day here to go somewhere, to walk around, because almost all the time when I’m in Dubai I go from the hotel to the tennis courts. Now here is the tournament, hotel, tennis courts. I didn’t get a chance to actually explore the city.

I don’t know what we’re going to do. I’m going to ask my dad.

Q. Anything on your list?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I haven’t been to Burj Khalifa. My sister did go there. My father has been there, I don’t know, 10, 15 times. I don’t think he’s going to be happy to go there again.

But we’re going to see. I’m going to talk to him and we’re going to decide what to do.

Q. Do you have any plans on the prize money?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: All questions to my dad. It all goes on his credit card because I don’t have my own yet. I cannot have my own bank account because I’m not 18.

I’m hoping that he will leave me some to spend somewhere, to buy chips and Coke (smiling). Yeah, I don’t know. I’m going to ask him.

Honestly, I don’t even know what I want. Now I think about it and I feel like I have everything I ever wanted. I won the tournament. I won it. I’ve already reached my goal that I’ve set for myself by the end of the year. My family is traveling with me. I have a great team. I don’t know what else I need. I feel happy and I feel this is all I need.

I have no idea. I think it will all go to my dad’s credit card. Maybe he’s going to buy himself something. I have no idea.

Q. You mentioned LeBron James. Any other champions you look to when you’re looking for inspiration, tennis champions, Roger Federer?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, when I want to motivate or inspire myself, I’m watching some of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and I of course my idol since I was a very, very young was Roger Federer.

Before the matches I’ve been watching highlights of him playing finals of Australian Open in 2017 against Nadal. Before the match, I was watching some highlights. I was like, Damn, how can he play like this? This is something extraordinary. How can a person just look good first, play like not that he doesn’t care, but play like everything is great even though he’s losing 1-6, 3-6, it’s fifth set. I knew he was losing 1-3 in the fifth. How can you just look good, play amazing, then in the end win the slam?

Yeah, I’ve been watching to a lot of Federer videos and some speeches. Of course, some as well of Nadal, Murray and Djokovic. I love those tennis idols that are idols to everyone.

Mostly I would say I’m watching tennis. I would say I watch tennis more than basketball or football or whatever.

Q. Do you like shopping, Mirra? If you do, what do you like buying for yourself?

MIRRA ANDREEVA: Yes, of course I like shopping. I think every girl likes shopping. Doesn’t matter what I buy, just as long as I buy something I already feel good. It can be jewelry. It can be a pair of jeans. It can be socks. It can be, I don’t know, a cap. As long as I bought something, I already feel good and I feel like the day is successful.

I don’t think we’re going to go to Dubai Mall because my dad is probably going to hate me if I tell him I want to go to Dubai Mall.

Yeah, he hates shopping and he hates spending his time on the shopping malls. I don’t know. Of course, I do like shopping. I like to buy something. Even if it’s from the grocery store it’s good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports