Mirra Andreeva: Embracing the Role of Defending Champion

A year older, a year wiser?

It appears to be the case with 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva. The Russian returns to the BNP Paribas Open as defending champion this year, and that would normally be a cue for a teen like herself to stress out.

Not Andreeva. It could be her new companion, the labradoodle named “Ressy” that she’s now traveling with, or it could be, well, that she’s just wise beyond her years.

Whatever the reason, Andreeva says that she’s not going to let the stress of defending 1,000 points this week bother her. She’s just been through the same process a few weeks ago in Dubai, where she reached the quarterfinals.

She happily found that it wasn’t the end of the world.

“Honestly I thought that I would think about that a lot,” she said during her media day press conference on Wednesday in the California desert. “I was worried about defending points in Dubai since Roland-Garros. So, you know, I was thinking about that a lot, but then actually when I came to Dubai, the only thing I felt is the excitement of being there again, of feeling new emotions like being at the tournament as a defending champion.”

Andreeva, seeded eighth, will face either Solana Sierra or Peyton Stearns in the second round.

If the seeds hold, she’s slated to face two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals.

In the meantime, she had a big smile on her face as she made the media rounds on Wednesday. She shared a lunch with Jack Draper at an event called the Champions Luncheon, then strolled by the tournament social media set. The smile never left her face.

Whether she can keep smiling all the way to next Sunday—and in the process become the first person to successfully defend the Indian Wells title since Martina Navratilova in 1991—is another story.

Whether she likes it or not, there’s a target on her back.

A problem for another day.

“It was all new to me, but I didn’t feel the pressure for some reason as I thought I would,” Andreeva reiterated. “And here it is the same thing. I’m just so excited to be here as a defending champion, see my photos almost everywhere in every corner. It’s just nice to be here again, and now I don’t feel any pressure on defending points.”