Mirra Andreeva came from 4-1 down in the deciding set to beat defending champion Jelena Ostapenko 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. The No. 6 seed needed 2 hours and 22 minutes to survive a match that swung hard in both directions before she closed it out.
Andreeva, who had already won her second trophy of 2026 in Linz, said the comeback was not something she expected to manage once Ostapenko moved ahead in the third set. “It was crazy,” she said, adding that her run in Linz showed her she could win from any score. “So I just kept believing in myself and was trying to grab any opportunity I have, and slowly, point by point, I felt like I'm coming back.”
The Russian teenager was pushed early by one of the tour’s most aggressive hitters, and Ostapenko did not land her first winner until the end of the third game. The Latvian also served for the first set with a 40-0 lead before losing it, a miss that opened the door for Andreeva to settle into rallies and stretch the match. As the evening wore on, Andreeva finished with 11 aces, while Ostapenko’s second-set spell unraveled into 19 errors and just four winners.
The result sends Andreeva into a second-round match against American qualifier Alycia Parks, who beat German wild card Noma Noha Akugue 6-4, 6-2. Parks had already felt Andreeva’s range once this season, when the Russian beat her 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of the 2025 US Open. That meeting in Stuttgart now pairs a player coming off a narrow escape with one trying to turn a familiar matchup into something more competitive.
The win over Ostapenko was their first career meeting, and it arrived with a small layer of timing attached: the two nearly crossed paths last week in Linz before Ostapenko lost to Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the quarterfinals. Andreeva beat Ruse in the semifinals on the way to the title. She said Tuesday’s match, with both players driving the ball hard, felt like a test that could help her prepare for what comes next. “She's also a very tough opponent to play against, because she also hits the ball very hard. She has a great serve,” she said.
Elsewhere in Stuttgart, Zeynep Sonmez produced the day’s other headline result, beating No. 5 seed Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2 in 75 minutes for the first career Top 10 win of her career. The Turkish player became the first from her country to defeat a Top 10 opponent, and she will next face Leylah Fernandez in the second round. For a tournament that opened with a champion falling and a breakout result in the same session, Tuesday left the draw looking far less settled than it did a few hours earlier.
