Tennis-Unbeaten Andreeva captures WTA Finals crown on debut

Russian ​teenager Mirra Andreeva beat Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 7-5 6-3 on Sunday ‌to ​win the WTA Finals, completing an unbeaten singles debut at the season-ending championships in Indian Wells without dropping a set. Andreeva threw her racket into the air and jumped for joy when Svitolina put an overhead into the net on match point, before hugging coach Conchita Martinez and her team.

"I'm ‌super thankful to my team for helping me work hard every day and pushing me to my limits," she said during the trophy ceremony. "Thanks for fighting with me." The 19-year-old French Open champion won all five of her matches at the event, which brings together the top eight players of the season.

She takes home the maximum prize money of $3.37 million and the Billie Jean King Trophy. King watched the final ‌from the stands on a sunny day in the California desert. MIRRA IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT

Andreeva will rise to a career-high world number two in Monday's rankings and will move within 300 points ‌of Elena Rybakina. She also won a custom Mercedes-Benz AMG SL 55 painted in the WTA's signature purple, though she does not yet have a driver's licence.

"This is an amazing motivation for me to get my driver's licence as fast as I can," she said during the trophy ceremony. "But I still want to just try to give it a little spin, maybe a couple of metres. I'm sure I'm going to be able to do that or at least honk a little bit.

"If ⁠not, then look, ​I have five people on my team. I'm gonna ⁠be a passenger princess forever so that's also an option for me." TENSE BATTLE

Andreeva was the favourite against Svitolina, the 2018 champion, and had beaten her 6-4 6-0 on Monday in the round-robin stage. The first set was tight, with long rallies ⁠as both players tried to control points by pushing the other from side to side and drawing them in off the baseline.

Andreeva served for the set at 5-4 but struggled, hitting two double faults and a backhand long ​to let Svitolina back into it. She stayed composed, though, breaking Svitolina in the next game and then showing great poise to serve out the 55-minute set.

The intensity stayed high in ⁠the second set, including a 10-minute seventh game, the longest of the tournament, which featured six deuces. Svitolina won the game when Andreeva sent a backhand wide to cut her opponent's lead to 4-3. But frustration began to mount for Svitolina during the ⁠subsequent ​changeover as she gestured to her team and Andreeva rolled on from there, easily holding serve and then breaking Svitolina for a sixth time to seal the win.

SVITOLINA THANKS UKRAINIAN FANS Svitolina, 32, said she hoped her return to the highest level after becoming a mother would inspire other women and athletes.

"I'm really happy to be in great form and to be coming back after pregnancy. Hopefully ⁠it inspires some ladies and athletes around the world to believe that it's possible," she said. Svitolina did not shake hands with Andreeva after the match, maintaining her policy of not doing so with ⁠Russian or Belarusian opponents following Russia's 2022 invasion ⁠of Ukraine, which Moscow launched using Belarus as a staging ground.

She also did not acknowledge Andreeva during the trophy ceremony. "I want to say thank you also to people in Ukraine for supporting me and being on this journey with me," she said.

The eight-day, $10 million tournament was moved from Riyadh to ‌Indian Wells Tennis Garden due to ‌the US-Israeli war on Iran. The event will move to Charlotte, North Carolina, next year.