Mirra Andreeva, a prodigy with a free spirit: "I just play as I feel"

WATCH: Mirra Andreeva sits down with Tennis Channel after her 2023 Roland Garros first round win.

“I am just doing what I feel is right to do on the court. Honestly, when we talk with my coaches about the plan for the match, I think about it just right before the match, but then I forget all the stuff, and I just play as I feel, and that's it.”

- Mirra Andreeva, replying to a reporter who marveled at the 16-year old’s “maturity” following her first-round triumph at Roland Garros—the first Grand Slam main draw appearance of her career.

While it’s easy to see what the reporter in this exchange was driving at, the word “maturity,” with its connotations of serious-mindedness and fortitude, doesn’t quite do justice to the qualities Andreeva is bringing to the game. Words like “insouciant,” or “blithe,” or even “lighthearted” might serve as a more accurate description of the phenom.

Other young girls have turned tennis on its ear: Cici Bellis and Coco Gauff both were even younger (15) when they won their first matches at a major. Andreeva is all business—creative business at that—on the court, but no teen sensation has cracked the Grand Slam code with such aplomb, or with such a simple, carefree attitude.

Her game communicates talent, ambition, and determination. Her personality suggests that she’s landed exactly where she’s meant to be. She has what the French call “joie de jouer,” or the joy of playing.

Andreeva is 21-2 in ITF and WTA Tour matches this year. Her ranking has risen from No. 312 in April to No. 143, partly on the strength of having beaten four Top 100 WTA players in the past two months (including former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez and Brazilian star Beatriz Haddad Maia). Andreeva has yet to lose a set after four matches, including three in qualifying, at Roland Garros.

Asked on Tuesday to evaluate why she is playing so well, Andreeva said, “I don't know. I just play. I just play. I just don't think about it. I just try to enjoy every moment here. I'm just practicing and living my life, and that's it. I just do my things.”

You could earn millions if you managed to bottle that attitude and keep it from evaporating as the demands, expectations and pressure accrue over time. And there’s no guarantee that Andreeva herself will be able to keep her relationship to her profession so sunny, so pure. Her joie de jouer hearkens back to the days when the apogee of the European “clay-court circuit” was a series of tournaments on the European Riviera, and the contenders squeezed every drop of pleasure out of them.

These days, though, tennis is a numbers game where even the most happy-go-lucky player has to take on the unglamorous role of bean counter. Points are collected like precious jewels earned at tournaments. Schedules are weighed. Everyone is acutely conscious of the rankings, prize money, sponsor bonuses. The first question any player faces in January is, “What are your goals for the year,” and the person asking isn’t inquiring if the player hopes to complete a solo sail across the Atlantic, or to build a log cabin by hand.

For the successful prodigy, obligations and pressures come fast, and they come hard. They are transformational before there’s even very much to transform.

There’s no predicting how success and big money will impact this prodigy from Siberia, but it seems fitting that one ambition she fulfilled already in Paris is meeting a fellow lighthearted traveler, Ons Jabeur.

Looking back on her experience playing the African championships, the Tunisian star said, “[It was] one of the best periods for me, because it's like so innocent playing tennis. All you want is to win. You don't care how many matches you play per day. We played like three matches a day. Nobody cared.”

There’s a little bit of that in Andreeva. When Jabeur was asked how it felt being a role model for the youngster, she quipped, “It makes me feel old, for one,” then added, “Hopefully we can play each other. I can give her a signed picture. She can put it in her bedroom. I don’t know. This is the first time somebody says that. But it’s special.”

Andreeva is likely to be giving out a lot more signed pictures than she collects in the future because she’s on the fast track to stardom. And make no mistake, she knows what she must do to get there. Although she got dusted by Aryna Sabaleka in the fourth round at the Madrid 1000, she has plans.

She said in Paris: “I won just four games, but I guess it was a good lesson if I'm here now. Maybe if I will play her, then I can take revenge. Who knows? So we will see.”