French Open Day 14 - Andreeva’s dream comes true

**Catherine** (0:10)
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast on Women's Finals Day at the 2026 French Open, a day that has seen 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva crowned a Grand Slam champion for the first time. She beat qualifier Maja Chwalinska 6-3, 6-2. And if Matt sounds at all down about this turn of events, it's because he's just had the microphone rudely yanked out of his hand by Mirra Andreeva in a Conchita Martinez press conference.

**Matt** (0:41)
Yeah, it's OK. It went better than that sounds, I would say. I still managed to get my question in.
And it was one of those things I could see happening in slow motion. I had the microphone in my hand, ready for the last question in English. And Andreeva giddily entered the room and I thought, oh no, I'm going to be involved in some kind of exchange, some sort of content potentially. Didn't want any of that. But it was OK.
She asked her a question. I got the chance to ask mine. And everyone's happy. I'm not quite as happy as Mirra Andreeva, though.

**Catherine** (1:13)
I so recognized the look on Matt's face, which was I'm about to become content against my will.

**David** (1:19)
Yes.

**Catherine** (1:21)
He's given it to me a lot.

**David** (1:22)
You're going to be on tennis TV, bro.

**Catherine** (1:25)
Yeah, that was the energy. But no, it was a lovely moment. And Matt was a lovely cameo in it.
I certainly got a lot of fun from it. In Mirra Andreeva's press conference, David, she said a lot of lovely things. But one of the things that stuck with me was what she said in, I think her first answer actually to you, or certainly the first answer to the first question from the floor. There was an opening one from the moderator, but she said, this feels better than I even dreamed. And I thought, this is a fourth French Open. So okay, that's not a long time coming, but it's not come out of the blue. She's had time to build up to this and figure out what it means and how hard it is and put herself in a place to really process and enjoy this. But it's not been so long a quest or struggle that all she can fear is relief. We see that a lot in Grand Slam Champions, don't we? Where the overwhelming feeling is just one of relief and exhaustion. It felt like the absolute sweet spot of pure joy, quite frankly, and it was lovely to see.

**David** (2:29)
Yeah, I could imagine if Zverev were to win tomorrow, his would mostly be relief. I think there would be obviously joy, but mostly relief. We had a question from Friends of the Tennis Podcast during a live show not that long ago, when we were asked about Emma Radikano winning as early as she did, and where the sweet spot is. You know, would you rather win at the start of your career or the end of your career? And actually, I think Andreeva's, as it's turned out, is probably perfect because she's still only 19, but she's been kind of around for three years. She's got used to the tour. She's got used to the life. And she's, it's not just this bolt from the blue that will just overwhelm her life. She seemed ready for this in just about every way, which actually is quite a pretty breakneck turnaround, considering where she was only a couple of months ago. I think she lost at four successive tournaments and she lost in a deciding set. And she'd been kind of up in all the sets, you know, and it was, it was, it seemed like a real problem for her. It almost seemed like her wind or her sun, you know.
And then this tournament, that hasn't happened at all. And that's great credit. I mean, look, she hasn't played maybe some of the players that might have forced her into those tense moments, but mainly because she's just sort of handled it. I mean, it was Louis Brasson a year ago and that wasn't a, wasn't a household name or a top 10 player. She's just, she's just dealt with everything. I mean, there was a particular moment in the third set today when she was serving for it.
There was a particular moment today in the second, in the second set when she was serving for the title and she lost the serve and you know, you, you wondered, didn't you? But after she sat down, she ran out. And I remember thinking, okay, this is a bit like when Yakub Minsky ran out of the change room yesterday. You feel like the body language is telling you I mean business. And I just think she's, she's, something's clicked, something has clicked these last month or so.