Andreeva, Draper claim Indian Wells titles
Russian teenager, Mirra Andreeva, came back to beat No. 1-ranked, Aryna Sabalenka, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday to make the 17-year-old the tournament’s youngest champion since Serena Williams in 1999.
The 11th-ranked Andreeva improved to 19-3 this season the most wins by a woman on tour and collected her second Masters 1000 title of 2025. The other came at Dubai in February, which earned her a top-10 ranking for the first time. Andreeva returned to that upper tier in yesterday’s WTA rankings.
In the men’s final later Sunday, 13th-seeded Jack Draper of Britain defeated 12th-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark 6-2, 6-2 to earn his first Masters 1000 championship. Draper, who is 23, upset two-time defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz, in the semifinals on Saturday.
The left-handed Draper, a U.S. Open semifinalist in September, improved to 13-2 this year and will make his debut in the ATP’s top 10 on Monday.
When she dropped the first set against three-time Grand Slam title winner, Sabalenka, Andreeva put her body into the windup after grabbing a ball, then angrily smacked it toward the stands.
Andreeva wearing training tape on her right shoulder played much better in the second set, particularly on serve, while compiling a 17-7 edge in winners. Soon enough, that set belonged to her when she hit an ace to hold at love for the first time all day.
In the third set, the teenager got started in the best way possible, breaking the big-serving Sabalenka at love. Andreeva took a 1-0 lead in the third with a too-strong passing shot that Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, could barely even get her racket on.
Andreeva ended the match with one last forehand winner, then dropped to her knees and covered her face with both hands.
This was her fifth consecutive victory over a top-10 opponent, and Andreeva is now 9-5 against players ranked that high since the start of 2024. That includes two victories each over Sabalenka and No. 2, Iga Swiatek, the five-time major champion who lost to Andreeva in the semifinals at Indian Wells.
Andreeva is the first player under age 18 to beat the women ranked No. 1 and No. 2 at the same WTA tournament since Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis at the 1999 U.S. Open.
She is also the youngest to win a WTA trophy by defeating the woman ranked No. 1 in a final since Maria Sharapova beat Davenport at Tokyo in 2005.
Sabalenka also lost the 2023 final in the California desert and made light of that on Sunday when she was handed her glass hardware for being the runner-up a similar but much smaller version of what the champion receives.—AP
