Indian Wells, California – Russian teenager Mira Andreva returned in 1999, beating No. 1 Alina Sabalenka 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 at BNP Paribas to become the youngest champion in the 17-year-old tournament since Serena Williams.
11th place Andreeva improved to 19-3 this season – women won the most on the tour, collecting the second Master 1000 titles of 2025. Andreeva will return to the top of that in Monday’s WTA rankings.
When she dropped the first set against Sabalenka, the winner of a three-time Grand Slam title, Andreva grabbed the ball and then put her body in a windup, slamming it angrily towards the stands.
Andreeva wears training tape on his right shoulder, but he edited the winners a 17-7 edge, although he was much better in the second set, especially the serve. Soon, the set belonged to her when she hit the ace to have love for the first time all day.
Shy, an hour and a half after the match, they were heading towards the third set.
And the teenagers started in the best possible way, breaking the massive Sabalenka with love. Andreeva took a 1-0 lead in third place with an overly strong passing shot that Sabalenka barely managed to even wear a racket.
Soon, Andreva’s lead was 4-2 and she never wobbled.
She finished the match with the final forehand winner, falling to her knees and covering her face with both hands.
This is her fifth consecutive victory over her top 10 opponent, with Andreeva 9-5 against players ranked at that high since the start of 2024, including Iga Swiatek, the five-time major champion, who was defeated by Sabalenka and second Iga Swiatek in the Indian Wells semi-finals, respectively.
Andreva is the first player to beat a woman ranked first and second in the same WTA tournament since Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis at the 1999 US Open.
The Russian is also the youngest person to win the WTA trophy by defeating the woman ranked No. 1 in the final since Maria Sharapova defeated Davenport in Tokyo in 2005.