Mirra Andreeva admits she ‘messed up big time’ in painful 2025 WTA Finals miss
Mirra Andreeva says she “messed up big time” with her play and scheduling choices during last year’s Asian swing and admits she was “disappointed” to miss out on the WTA Finals.
Going into last year’s Asian swing, the Russian tennis star – who won back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells in early 2025 – had a strong lead over Elena Rybakina in the Race to the WTA Finals.
But then, Andreeva went a very disappointing 2-3 across the Asian swing – she reached the Beijing round-of-16 and lost her openers in Wuhan and Ningbo.
On the other side, Rybakina reached the Beijing third round, the Wuhan quarterfinal and won the WTA 500 tournament in Ningbo.
Then came the key part – Rybakina entered Tokyo, while Andreeva didn’t sign up to play that week. And after winning Ningbo, the only thing the Kazakh needed to overtake the Russian and secure the last WTA Finals spot was to reach the Tokyo semifinal. The current world No. 1 did exactly that – and after reaching the Tokyo semifinal – she pulled out of the rest of the tournament.
Andreeva: I messed up big time… That lesson was pretty harsh
This year, Andreeva routinely booked a WTA Finals ticket as she is third in the Race. However, she admits that it was extremely painful to miss out on the season-ending tournament last year the way she did.
“I think we all know that I just messed up big time. Every match that (Elena) had to win in order to qualify, she did. Every tournament that she had to play to qualify, she did,” Andreeva told the WTA website.
“You learn from your mistakes sometimes, and even though last year was pretty harsh because when I saw that she won – I think it was quarterfinal match in Tokyo – I was like, ‘Ughh yeah, of course.’ I was disappointed.”
Andreeva set for a WTA Finals debut in Indian Wells
On July 1, the WTA announced that it was terminating its contract with the Saudis and that the season-ending tournament would take place in Indian Wells instead of Riyadh.
So far, seven players have booked their places – Andreeva, Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Elina Svitolina and Linda Noskova.
When Andreeva takes to the court in the desert between November 8-15, she will officially make her WTA Finals singles debut.
