Mirra Andreeva aims for a new level at the US Open

Mirra Andreeva, the teenager who has been surprising the world in women's tennis since last year, made her debut with a victory at the 2025 US Open .

She needed just 55 minutes to defeat Alycia Parks in the first round of the U.S. Grand Slam in straight sets (6-0, 6-1). This confirmed her potential as one of the five favorites to lift the trophy.

At 18, Russian Andreeva is the fifth-highest seed in the US Open women's singles draw, trailing only Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, and Jessica Pegula.

As of Monday, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) has seen seven of its top eight seeds enter action in New York. The only disappointment was sixth-seeded Madison Keys, who bowed out in the first round after losing to Mexican Renata Zarazúa.

Mirra Andreeva, for her part, was unforgiving in her strategy. She won 90% of her second serve points and 75% on her first. This was the first match of her still-short WTA Tour career against American Alycia Parks .

Now, the teenager, who is coached by Conchita Martínez, will face a major challenge: advancing to the third round of the US Open for the first time.

While Andreeva has already reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam, at Roland Garros 2024 , the US Open is the major event in which she has had the worst results, since both in 2023 and last season she was eliminated in the second round.

Overall, this is Andreeva's eleventh Grand Slam main draw. Chronologically, her best result at the Australian Open was the round of 16 (2024 and 2025), the semifinals at Roland Garros (2024), and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon (2025). But at the US Open, she hasn't made it past the second round so far.

An incentive to end that streak is the remarkable season she's enjoying in 2025. Between February and March, she won the most important titles of her career: the WTA 1000 in Dubai and Indian Wells, respectively.

Her compatriot, Anastasia Potapova, will try to stop Mirra Andreeva's US Open dream. They only have two matches on the WTA Tour , with a tie-breaking victory for each (Potapova at Monastir in 2022 and Andreeva at Wimbledon in 2023).

Mirra is ranked in the fourth quadrant of the 2025 US Open. She is the highest ranked player in that group, followed by American Emma Navarro (10). Other notable players still in this quadrant are Barbora Krejcikova and Jelena Ostapenko.

Other WTA results

Monday's women's round at the US Open featured other highlights, in addition to victories for Mirra Andreeva and Renata Zarazúa.

One of them was the retirement of Czech Petra Kvitova, former world number 2 (2011). She lost in the first round to Frenchwoman Diane Parry, thus fulfilling her promise to retire from professional tennis after 19 years.

“Overall, my tennis career has been full of pressure, both on and off the court. But I enjoyed it; I think I did pretty well,” said the 35-year-old, who bids farewell with 31 singles titles.

Later, another living WTA legend was eliminated: Venus Williams, who fell in three sets (3-6, 6-2, 1-6) to the tournament's number 11 seed, Karolina Muchova.

The two-time US Open champion (2000 and 2001), now 45, was unable to return to winning ways at this tournament. She suffered four consecutive first-round losses, with her last positive result coming in 2019.

Venus's only satisfaction was that she set the third record for the oldest player to last three sets in a US Open women's singles match in the Open Era, at 45 years, 68 days old. She trailed only Martina Navratilova and Renee Richards.

The 2025 US Open was Venus Williams' first Grand Slam in the last two years. The future is still uncertain for a figure who, at 17, reached the New York final in her first appearance at the tournament (in 1997).