Mirra Andreeva played her first-ever match on the WTA Tour against Victoria Mboko in the Adelaide International final.
Andreeva won two WTA 1000 titles last year in a breakout season for the Russian teenager, where she reached her career-high ranking of world number five.
However, the 18-year-old struggled in the latter stages of the 2025 season, which left Andreeva just missing out on qualifying for the WTA Finals for the first time.
Andreeva has been predicted to win Grand Slams this year, and she has already made an impressive start to the 2026 season after winning the Adelaide International.
Mirra Andreeva responds when asked if it was ‘weird’ to see Victoria Mboko’s success last year
Andreeva is not the only teenager who won a WTA 1000 title last year, with Mboko lifting the Canadian Open trophy in a huge breakthrough year for the 19-year-old, who began 2025 outside the top 300 in the world rankings.
Showcasing themselves as two of the biggest rising talents on the WTA Tour, Andreeva and Mboko both reached the final of the Adelaide International.
In this final, Andreeva was able to beat Mboko, 6-3 6-1, to win the fourth WTA singles title of her career.
While they had never met in an official WTA match before the final in Adelaide, Andreeva and Mboko have spent a lot of time together as juniors.
When asked about her relationship with Mboko in her pre-Australian Open press conference, with Andreeva calling the Canadian one of her ‘good friends’.
“Well, I don’t know. It was not weird,” Andreeva said when asked if it was weird to play another teenager doing well. “It was more like obviously at some point it would have happened.
“When I saw her play amazing tennis last year, winning a Montreal tournament, and obviously I know her for a very, very long time, she’s one of my good friends as well, it was more nice and more exciting just to see her do well.
“You know, eventually we got to share the final together. I think that if we both continue playing on a high level, we both continue playing well, I think we have so many more finals in the future unfortunately that we have to play against each other. And yeah, for me it was more exciting to see another player, another good friend of mine, do well.”
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Andreeva will now look to continue her momentum into the Australian Open, where she has reached the fourth round in both of her previous appearances.
As she looks to improve on those runs, Andreeva does not have an easy first-round match against former Wimbledon semifinalist Donna Vekic.
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Then awaiting Andreeva is a second-round meeting against former world number three Maria Sakkari, who has already won her first-round match against Leolia Jeanjean.
Some of the other potential threats to Andreeva in her half of the draw include Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Elina Svitolina and her doubles partner Diana Shnaider.
| Australian Open 2026 | Mirra Andreeva’s potential opponents |
| First Round | Donna Vekic |
| Second Round | Maria Sakkari |
| Third Round | Elena-Gabriela Ruse/Ajla Tomljanovic/Yulia Starodubtseva |
| Fourth Round | Elina Svitolina (12)/Diana Shnaider (23)/Babora Krejcikova/Talia Gibson |
| Quarterfinal | Coco Gauff (3)/Emma Navarro (15)/Karolina Muchova (19)/Jacqueline Cristian |
| Semifinal | Aryna Sabalenka (1)/Jasmine Paolini (7)/Ekaterina Alexandrova (11)/Clara Tauson (14) |
| Final | Iga Swiatek (2)/Amanda Anisimova (4)/Elena Rybakina (5)/Jessica Pegula (6) |
While Andreeva has a tough draw ahead of her, she should be encouraged by the fact that three of the past four champions in Adelaide have gone on to win the women’s singles title at the Australian Open.
The 18-year-old will begin her campaign against Vekic on Margaret Court Arena, with the match taking place on Monday, January 19.
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