 "Indian Wells Open 2025 women's singles champion Mirra Andreeva speaks at the presentation ceremony as runner-up Aryna Sabalenka smiles in the background. AP")
Mirra Andreeva stood tall at the Indian Wells Open to win her second straight WTA 1000 title after triumphing in the Dubai Tennis Championships earlier this month. In the process, she became the third-youngest woman to be crowned champion at Indian Wells after Martina Hingis and Serena Williams in 1998 and 1999 respectively.
What made the Russian’s 2–6, 6–4, 6–3 victory over three-time Grand Slam champion Aryna Sabalenka on Sunday even more special was the fact that she became the second-youngest player in WTA history to defeat the top-two players in the world in the same tournament.
Andreeva makes history in the desert
Andreeva, currently aged 17 years and 10 months, had defeated world No 2 Iga Swiatek 7-6 (7-1), 1-6, 6-3 in the semi-finals on Saturday before bouncing back from a set down to defeat the top-ranked Sabalenka in the final.
Only former American tennis player Tracy Austin had defeated the top two in the world in the same tournament at a younger age, and she did it twice.
Austin was 16 years and 8 months old when she defeated world No 2 Martina Navratilova in the semi-finals of the 1979 US Open, and would go on to defeated world No 1 Chris Evert in the final.
Two months later at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt, West Germany, she would once again triumph over Evert and Navratilova – who had swapped placed at the top of the WTA rankings this time and were second and first respectively.
Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion who is considered one of the greatest players of all time, occupies the next two slots in the list of youngest players to defeat the WTA top two in the same event.
She was 17 years and 11 months old when she had defeated fellow American Lindsay Davenport, ranked second back then, in the semi-finals of the 1999 US Open before triumphing over world No 1 Hingis in the final to win her first Grand Slam.
She would defeat Hingis and Davenport again in Los Angeles the following year at the age of 18 years and 10 months.