Amanda Anisimova and Mirra Andreeva have set up a highly anticipated quarterfinal at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Both Anisimova and Andreeva had received walkovers to the third round, with the Dubai Tennis Championships having many withdrawals this year.
In their first appearances on court in Dubai, both Anisimova and Andreeva won their matches in straight sets, beating Janice Tjen and Jaqueline Cristian, respectively.
This has set up just a second encounter between Anisimova and Andreeva, as they play their first match since their fallout at the Miami Open last year.
Amanda Anisimova and Mirra Andreeva could have tense match in Dubai
Andreeva won the Dubai Tennis Championships and Indian Wells back-to-back last year, and came into the Miami Open in hot form.
However, the Russian teenager was faced with difficult opposition in the third round, with Andreeva playing Anisimova for the first time.
This proved to be too much for Andreeva, who saw her winning 13-match winning streak ended by Anisimova in a three-set defeat.
While the result itself was significant, the biggest talking point from the match came during the third set of the match, as well as on social media after.
Anisimova called for a medical timeout in the fifth game of the third set when leading 3-1 40-40 after telling the umpire that a blister on her finger needed to be attended to immediately.
Although medical timeouts are usually only allowed at the change of ends, Anisimova’s situation meant that it was permitted by the umpire, which Andreeva certainly took exception to.
When arguing with the umpire about the decision to allow this, Andreeva was heard saying, “We all know why,” seemingly suggesting that Anisimova was trying to gain a competitive advantage.
After Anisimova had her blister attended to she would beat Andreeva, 7-6(5) 2-6 6-3, before responding to her opponent’s comments on social media.
In an Instagram story showing her blistered middle finger appearing to be doing a rude gesture, Anisimova called out a medical timeout Andreeva took in the first set.
She wrote at the time, “‘We all know why’ at 3-1 up was a good one coming from the 1-2 first set medical.”
Anisimova and Andreeva have not played each other since then, and it will be interesting to see if their previous fallout continues in Dubai.
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Mirra Andreeva will need to improve something to beat Amanda Anisimova
If Andreeva is to get revenge over Anisimova then she will certainly need to improve one shot that she was struggling with in her match against Cristian.
Although she was able to beat Cristian in straight sets, Andreeva really struggled with her serve throughout the match.
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Andreeva was broken in five of the 10 service games she played, and hit seven double faults in the match.
All seven of these double faults came in the first set of the match, where the serve was a particular problem for Andreeva.
In this first set, Andreeva won only two of the 17 points she played on her second serve.
Andreeva managed to overcome these issues against Cristian, but it seems unlikely that she would be able to do the same against world number six Anisimova when they meet again on Thursday, February 18.
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