One year older, one year wiser?
That seems to be the case for 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva. The Russian returns to the BNP Paribas Open this year as the defending champion, something that would normally put pressure on a teenager like her.
Not Andreeva. It could be her new companion, a Labrador named “Ressy” who now travels with her, or it could be, well, she’s just wiser than her years.
Whatever the reason, Andreeva said she won’t let the pressure of defending 1,000 points this week bother her. She had just gone through the same process a few weeks earlier in Dubai, where she reached the quarter-finals.
She was happy to discover that it wasn’t the end of the world.
“Honestly, I think I’m going to be thinking about this a lot,” she said during a media day news conference in the California desert on Wednesday. “I’ve been worried about defending my title in Dubai since Roland Garros. So, you know, I thought about it a lot, but really, when I came to Dubai, the only thing I felt was the excitement of being there again, feeling new emotions, just like competing as the defending champion.”
Eighth-seeded Andreeva will face either Solana Serra or Payton Stearns in the second round.
If the seed wins, she will face two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, she was all smiles as she spoke to the media on Wednesday. She lunched with Jack Draper at an event called “Champions Luncheon” and then wandered the championship social media scene. The smile never left her face.
Whether she can keep smiling until next Sunday – and in the process become the first to successfully defend her Indian Wells title since Martina Navratilova in 1991 – is another matter.
Whether she wants it or not, there is a purpose behind her.
A question for another day.
“This is new for me, but for some reason I don’t feel the pressure as much as I thought I would,” Andreeva reiterated. “It’s the same here. I’m happy to be here as the defending champion and my picture can be seen in almost every corner. It’s nice to be here again and now I don’t feel any pressure to defend my title.”
