Andreeva wins Dubai; becomes youngest-ever WTA 1000 champ and cracks Top 10

Rapidly rising teen Mirra Andreeva capped a career-best week by capturing her second and biggest WTA title, defeating Clara Tauson 7-6(1), 6-1 to win the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Saturday night.

In a showdown between two players who were each contesting their first WTA 1000 final, it was No. 12 seed Andreeva who bested 38th-ranked Tauson in 1 hour and 46 minutes, breaking new ground for teenagers at this level.

At 17 years and 299 days old, Andreeva is the youngest WTA 1000 finalist and champion since the WTA 1000 format began in 2009.

"I've been dreaming of having a press conference with a [WTA 1000] trophy by my side, so finally it happened," Andreeva smiled in her victory press conference. "But I saw winners drinking a glass of champagne. It's a pity that I'm still 17."

Top 10 talent confirmed: An additional milestone will come Andreeva's way after hoisting her first WTA 1000 trophy: she will make her Top 10 debut in the PIF WTA Rankings on Monday.

With her run to the Dubai title, Andreeva is projected to move up from No. 14 to No. 9 in the updated rankings. She will become the first 17-year-old to be ranked in the Top 10 since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007.

"Now when you enter Top 10 and the higher your ranking is, the slower and longer it's going to take for you to be even higher because the difference in the points is very, very short, very small," Andreeva said.

"I think it's going to be hard to enter Top 5. This is the exact goal that I'm going to set for myself, to be Top 5 by the end of the year. I'm very curious if I will be able to achieve it."

Players on the rise: Both contestants in Saturday's final had stellar weeks. The top 2 seeds, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, were not in this final because they were taken out by Tauson and Andreeva respectively.

Tauson cruised past Sabalenka in the Round of 16, underscoring an exceptional year. The Dane is the 2025 tour leader in match-wins (15) and is the only player to beat Madison Keys this season, in Auckland en route to her third career title.

But it was Andreeva who completed the week with the champion's trophy, after beating Swiatek in the quarterfinals and backing up that victory with a win over No. 6 seed Elena Rybakina in the semifinals.

The 2023 WTA Newcomer of the Year, Andreeva extends her remarkable surge. In the past two decades, Andreeva is only the fifth player to win multiple WTA titles before turning 18, joining Maria Sharapova, Michaella Krajicek, Nicole Vaidisova and Coco Gauff.

Another fun fact: All three teenagers who have made a WTA 1000 final since 2020 have won the title (also Iga Swiatek at 2021 Rome and Coco Gauff at 2023 Cincinnati). 

Match moments: A back-and-forth opening set saw Andreeva fall behind 2-0 after consecutive double faults, but the teen fired a backhand winner to immediately pull back on serve. Then, at 4-3, Andreeva triumphed in a lengthy rally with a winning forehand, which spurred her on to win eight of the next nine points and serve for the set at 5-4.

Tauson was not done yet, slamming a powerful forehand of her own to level the set at 5-5 without facing break point. But once the pair reached the tiebreak, Andreeva took charge, hitting an ace for 3-0 and dragging more errors from the Tauson racquet. Andreeva cruised through the breaker and earned a hard-fought one-set lead after exactly one hour.

"When I managed to win the first set, I felt like, 'Well, OK, this is I think one of the first times when I actually lead in the score,'" Andreeva said. "That gave me a bit of confidence."

Andreeva’s backhand caught fire in the second set, and she used that wing to break for 3-1. Tauson continued to battle and earned three break points in the next game, but two excellent serves and another backhand winner on the baseline allowed Andreeva to erase those chances and consolidate for 4-1.

Andreeva punched an overhead winner to break again for 5-1, and she routinely served out the match to clinch victory. Andreeva had 12 forehand winners and 10 backhand winners in the clash, and she converted four of her seven break points.

"I missed some shots that I usually don't miss," Andreeva said. "[But] if something doesn't go your way, OK, fine, you forget about it, play one point at a time.

"I've been listening to a lot of LeBron James interviews. What he said is it's easy to be confident and to play good when everything goes your way. What makes you a champion is when you're giving your best when you don't feel great. That's what I tried to do today."