Mirra and Erika Andreeva will face off for the first time as professionals in the second round of the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open after both sisters secured victories in their opening matches.

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On Monday, No.70-ranked lucky loser Erika, 20, came from 5-2 down in the first set and 4-2 down in the second to defeat Dayana Yastremska 7-5, 6-4. She saved two set points in the opening set en route to her first victory in three meetings over the Australian Open semifinalist.

No.16 seed Mirra, 17, held up her end of the deal on Tuesday with a 7-6(5), 6-3 win over home wild card Wang Xiyu. The teenager rose to the occasion in the most important moments, coming up with fine net play to edge the tiebreak while Wang contributed two double faults. Having been stymied on her first six break points of the contest, Mirra also found a precise backhand winner down the line to seal the only break of the match in the second set.

Afterward, Mirra was apprehensive about the prospect of competing against her sister.

"It will be like a nightmare to play against her," she said. "It will be a pretty weird match. She will know what I will do on the court, and I know what she does. I think it's going to be fun for the people who are watching, but really stressful for the both of us."

The Andreevas will become the third set of sisters to face each other in a WTA main draw in the past 10 years. The last such meeting came in the second round of Lexington 2020, the 31st and final installment of the rivalry between Serena and Venus Williams. Serena won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and led the final head-to-head record 19-12.

Czech twins Karolina and Kristyna also played each other 10 times at professional level, with five wins apiece -- but Kristyna won their only match in a main draw 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(7) in the 2019 Birmingham second round.

Both Erika and Mirra were top juniors -- Erika was the 2021 Roland Garros girls' runner-up, and Mirra the girls' finalist at the 2023 Australian Open -- but Mirra has streaked ahead since transitioning to the pro game. This week, she made her Top 20 debut in the PIF WTA Rankings after reaching the Beijing quarterfinals, becoming the youngest player to be ranked in the Top 20 since Nicole Vaidisova in 2006.

However, the older sister has maintained a firm grip of the rivalry on court. Erika has yet to lose a set in practice to Mirra.

"We practiced a lot when we were younger and of course she would always beat me, like 6-1 or 6-2," Mirra said at the US Open last year. "Maybe only 6-3 if I played good, or she had a bad day."

It was Erika who pointed out a caveat in this dominance. Though they still hit with each other, they no longer play points. They haven't played a set against each other in over five years.

"Honestly, Mirra was so small," Erika said at the US Open. "The time that we played was very long ago. Also, when you are that young, the age difference matters more."

As both sisters began to focus on tennis as a career, they have been careful not to let it play any role in their relationship. At Wimbledon in 2023, Mirra said that they deliberately talk about "anything but tennis" off court. That's partly because both know they have a deeply competitive streak. According to Erika, they'll let this come out against each other when they play cards, Uno or table tennis -- the "games" that they don't take as seriously.

Mirra expanded on this decision after defeating Wang.

"We've established a pretty long time ago that we do not want to play sets or matches against each other in the practice because it's not like we're nervous, it's like we're nervous about each other," she said.

"For example, if she does a lot of mistakes or I see she's unhappy or worried, I start to be worried for her, then I cannot play normally. When she sees that some bad stuff happens to me, she cannot play normally, she cannot practice. 

"We said we can do normal practices, hitting the ball, moving, doing some crosscourts, but no playing because that would not be good for both of us."

An intra-familial dynamic is often a fascinating one to watch on a tennis court, as much to do with familiarity with each other's games and sibling psychology as respective level vis-à-vis other opponents. Serena Williams famously lost five of her first six matches against Venus before taking the next six, including in five Grand Slam finals, to turn the rivalry in her favor. And back at Madrid 2023, Mirra's breakout tournament, those were the factors she cited when asked to predict who would win a hypothetical matchup between her and Erika.

Perhaps that's why, 17 months on, Mirra isn't looking forward to the match now it's here. Despite her misgivings, the Roland Garros semifinalist was still able to show why she's considered one of the best tacticians in the sport by breaking down the differences between their games.

"I feel like now [Erika] is more aggressive," she said. "At the same time she's smart and she sees the court good. With this aggressiveness, she sees the opponent, where she is. She just plays in the open space.

"I feel like I just take more time. I change the rhythm a lot. I just play in the moment. Like, I decide during the rally what I want to do. For example, there is a lob coming. I'm like, 'OK, I'm going to wait for it to bounce and then I'm going to take it.' Then I see it's slow, so I'm, OK, I'm going to take a spin ball. I feel like I can change my decisions fast. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad.

"I feel like she has one strong plan for the match and she will do it until the match is over. Doesn't matter the score, doesn't matter the situation. She will just go for it, do whatever it takes to win. Me, I'm more kind of see what happens, then we're going to decide, all of that."

Whoever comes out on top, the sisters have agreed on one way in which they can both emerge as the winner.

"We decided we're going to split the prize money from the second round," Mirra said. "Whoever wins goes forward, but we split the money."