Mirra Andreeva is inching towards her maiden Grand Slam title as she advances to the 2026 French Open finale. The 19-year-old handed a politically charged semi-final defeat to Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, to seal a 6-1, 6-3 victory on Thursday. She will take on Maja Chwalinska in an unanticipated title decider that only a few would have predicted.
Andreeva dominated the game from the start with a 4-0 lead in the opening set. Kostyuk showed a glimmer of a comeback in the second set, but Andreeva continued to assert her authority and bagged the second set. The two have earlier faced each other in two other tournaments, where the 19-year-old was outmatched by the Ukrainian.
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“I never actually thought that I’d be able to win, I don’t know, big tournaments, or be in a Grand Slam final. It was just all my dreams, everything that I have been dreaming of” – Mirra Andreeva confessed.
“I’ve been trying to work on being more calm, more positive. I’m very focused, and recently, I’ve been trying to do a lot of different stuff” – she added.
What country is Mirra Andreeva from?
Mirra Andreeva is a Russian professional tennis player who was born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. She is the younger sister of Erika Andreeva, who has a career-high singles ranking of 65. The family eventually moved to Moscow for training. In 2022, the two sisters moved to the Elite Tennis Center, located in Cannes, France, which happens to be the former training base of Daniil Medvedev.
Why is there no national flag next to Mirra Andreeva’s name at the tournaments?
Mirra Andreeva doesn’t have a flag next to her name because she was born in Russia. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the international tennis governing bodies, which include the WTA Tour and the ITF, established it as a policy that all players from Russia and Belarus must compete as neutral individuals.
Additionally, athletes from these countries are not allowed to display their country’s flag or symbols on the scoreboards or uniforms. In these cases, tournaments often replace the national flag with a neutral symbol, which is either a blue rectangle or a blank space. National anthems are also not played before or after their matches.
The Belarusian and the Russian players have been competing as neutral players in Grand Slam tournaments since 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Why did Mirra not shake hands with Marta Kostyuk during the 2026 French Open semi-final?
After the semi-final match, Andreeva and Kostyuk did not exchange a handshake due to political tensions between their countries. Kostyuk walked quickly and blew kisses to the crowd, among whom some supporters were draped in Ukrainian flags. The pre-match atmosphere was somewhat tense, given that the players had their pictures taken separately with two children on either side.
Kostyuk and her fellow countrywoman Oleksandra Oliynykova had earlier addressed in the tournament the repercussions of Russia’s 4-year invasion of Ukraine on their motherland.
In a pre-game interview, the Ukrainian accused the Russian players of choosing silence because of severe ramifications at home.
“There is a way if you don’t agree. I know some people who have left Russia the moment the war began, who sold all their business, who left everything behind because they just don’t agree with what their country is doing to other people.” – Kostyuk argued.
Additionally, she invoked Daria Kasatkina‘s allegiance from Russia to Australia last year, as someone who took a stand for her political views despite familial pressure.
Edited by Ahana Bhaumik