Mirra Andreeva experienced a roller-coaster run at the Madrid Open, where she narrowly missed out on the title.
Andreeva lost to Marta Kostyuk in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament, falling 6-3, 7-5 to the Ukrainian in the Spanish capital.
The Russian teenager was left in tears after the match, having also produced a vocal outburst earlier in the tournament, shouting “I’m not a champion” towards her box.
Madrid Open runner-up Andreeva wants to play more consistently, which is exactly what Rennae Stubbs now wants for the youngster in terms of her emotions too.
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Mirra Andreeva told to find balance with her emotions
Speaking on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, she said: “The one thing that I want to say about Mirra is that I find that she fights her emotions so much on the tennis court, that it’s almost like she gets to a point where she doesn’t show any emotion.
“Have you noticed that? She’s just like, no emotion, no emotion, no emotion, no emotion, and then boom, it’s all this emotion after the match. Or it’s one ‘Come on’.
“And she’s learning. She’s still so young. She’s what, 19 years of age? I would like to see her find a little bit more of a balance there, not be negative as we’ve seen.
“I mean, yelling at Conchita [Martinez] in her box saying, ‘I’m not a champion, I’m not a champion’, in her previous matches.
“So she’s kind of like still very petulant on the court with certain things, that immaturity, the way she acts. But I feel like then she goes to this Chris Evert mode of like not showing any emotion and no emotion, no emotion, no emotion.
“So I kind of want to find the balance, because I think she still has to show a little bit of emotion, like happiness, not get too high and not get too low. She has to find that perfect middle ground.
“I think once she does that, I think it’ll help her, because sometimes you need to show your opponent that you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m coming here, I’m coming to fight’, rather than be so Jannik Sinner, because you don’t have the power of Jannik Sinner.
“Jannik needs to stay calm to play well, whereas Mirra, I’d like to see her find that perfect balance of positive and negative, just find that perfect middle ground. And she’ll get there, she’s still young.”
Rennae Stubbs states how Mirra Andreeva differs from Elena Rybakina
It clearly isn’t easy for Andreeva to find such a balance, and that is very understandable given that she just turned 19 during the tournament.
She, therefore, deserves huge credit for all that she has achieved thus far, having already won WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells.
When asked how she can be coached to handle her emotions better going forward, Stubbs said of Andreeva: “I think that it’ll come with time. I think it really will.
“I think it’ll come with time of losing more, winning more. How to handle it all better. She’s an incredibly emotional young woman.
“She’s super happy off the court, she’s super bubbly and very jovial, and so that’s just who she is. She’s just super emotional.
“And then you’ve got [Elena] Rybakina on the other hand, who’s just like a robot all the time. Off the court she’s a lot more sort of relaxed, but like, poof, the way she just wins and loses.
“I think as a coach, you probably prefer a player to be a little less up and down, but at the same time she’s human, and that’s it.”
More maturity will come as she gets older, but Andreeva has already shown maturity beyond her years in her relatively brief career so far.
That now continues at the Italian Open, where the Russian eighth seed will start in round two following a first round bye.
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