Is Mirra Andreeva ready to win her first Grand Slam at Roland Garros?

Mirra Andreeva had finally made a mistake that mattered.

She has won a nearly flawless first set over Sorana Cirstea 6-0. She had kept that momentum going with an early break in the second. Serving with power and hitting with depth, weight, and tremendous extension from the baseline, the 19-year-old had given Cirstea no place to go with the ball. The Romanian couldn’t find room for a single winner in the first set.

Then, up 3-2, three games from her second semifinal at Roland Garros, Andreeva blinked. At break point, she took a full swing on a short forehand, a shot she’d hardly missed all day, and drilled it into the net. Broadcasters immediately swung the camera angle around in Court Philippe Chatrier to show us her reaction.

Would the teenager smack her thigh with her racquet, as she did earlier in this tournament? Would she chuck it down to the clay, which is her go-to move when she’s frustrated? Would she have words for her long-suffering coach, Conchita Martinez? Would she smack a ball into the stands, as she had during her quarterfinal loss to France’s Lois Boisson in this round a year ago?

No, Andreeva wouldn’t do any of that. Instead, she pulled her visor down a little lower, adjusted her dress, stared coldly across the net, and got ready for Cirstea’s next serve.

Then she won the next three games, while barely surrendering a point.

In her first four matches, Andreeva dropped just one set, and looked very much in form by the round of 16. But even she was a littler blown away by a performance where she made 78 percent of her first serves, went six for six on break points, hit 18 winners to four from her opponent, was seven of eight at net, and won 56 points to just 27 for Cirstea.

According to her, her warmup was perfect, too. But as every tennis player knows, that isn’t necessarily a good thing.

“I felt like I didn’t miss one ball during the warmup, so I kind of got a little bit nervous after that, because usually when you have an amazing warmup, you don’t play the same way during the match,” Andreeva said.

“I just found myself being very, very focused, very aggressive, going for my shots all the time. I don’t know what happened, but I was just, like, in the zone, I guess.”

Rather than tighten up as she closed in on the win, Andreeva grew even more relentless. To reach match point, she hit a backhand that landed on the sideline for a winner. On match point, she hit a forehand that landed on the other sideline for a winner.

This is the Andreeva we’ve been waiting for over the past year. In 2025, when she climbed into the Top 5 as an 18-year-old, it became clear that it wasn’t a matter of if, but when, she would her first Grand Slam title. Is the when upon us now? Her ability to mix power serving—she averaged 111 m.p.h. on her first serve on Tuesday—with a forceful but consistent baseline attack will be difficult for anyone to break down.

Andreeva looks like she’s peaking at the right moment, and tempering her temper at the right time. After her match, she gave us a hint of how. Asked why she likes to thank herself after she wins a title, she said that she got the idea from hearing Snoop Dogg do it at an awards event.

“For the first couple of times, I kind of stole it, to make a joke,” Andreeva said. “But then I realized that it’s actually true, we have to thank ourselves for the work that we do on the court, and for how much we sacrifice, and for how much we practice.”

“Now it’s just really what I want to tell myself almost every time.”

Andreeva is just two matches from giving herself her biggest thank you yet.