Mirra Andreeva says tennis has taught her that she may live with two personalities, one on court and one away from it. Returning to the Madrid Open three years after her breakthrough there as a fifteen-year-old wildcard, the world number eight said players should not be judged for how they behave in the heat of competition.
“On court, I think that sometimes we’re completely different people,” Andreeva said in a WTA interview. “People should never judge us when we do something on court because sometimes the emotions, the feelings, maybe the fear or the adrenaline can change us completely. Off the court, we’re completely different people.” She said the split is something she is still learning to understand.
The 2023 Madrid run was the launch pad for that rise. Andreeva reached the fourth round after beating Leylah Fernandez, then the 13th-ranked Beatriz Haddad Maia and the 17th-ranked Magda Linette before losing to Aryna Sabalenka, the world number two, in the round of sixteen. Three years later, she is back in Madrid with two WTA 1000 titles already on her résumé and WTA 500 wins in Adelaide and Linz this year.
That climb gives her words extra weight. Andreeva said tennis has taught her that she likely has two personalities, on court and off court, and that discovering the difference has been part of the process. Before matches, she said, she uses a visualization routine and usually closes her eyes. When she lines up against top-ranked opponents or Grand Slam champions, she reminds herself that this is what she wanted since she was very young.
“That was kind of fun to discover, and I’m still trying to learn who I am on court and who I am off the court,” she said. The balance matters because her results now place her in a different lane from the teenager who first arrived in Madrid. She is no longer the unknown wildcard chasing a surprise week; she is a top-ten player expected to handle the pressure that comes with being treated like a threat. Her recent win over Elina Svitolina and the upcoming quarterfinal against Iga Swiatek in Stuttgart underlined that point, even if Madrid is where this particular rise began.
Andreeva’s comments also capture the contradiction at the center of her season. She says she wants the biggest names and the biggest stages, but she also admits those matches can bring fear, adrenaline and shifting emotions. That tension is part of what makes her ascent feel real: the ranking has changed, the titles have piled up, but the player herself is still figuring out who she is when the match starts and the mask goes on.