Adelaide in the vanguard as teenagers herald a whole new ball game
As the singles finals of the Adelaide International hit off at 12.30pm on Saturday ahead of the looming Australia Open, Richard Evans surveys the elite players amongst its ranks.
Women’s elite tennis enters a new era this afternoon with a battle of the teenagers to determine who wins the prestigious WTA 500 Adelaide International crown at Memorial Drive.
It is not quite yet a changing of the guard but finalists Mirra Andreeva and Victoria Mboko, 18 and 19-years-old respectively, are on the very precipice of shifting the face of their sport.
Articulate, athletic and box-office central, they also represent an unexpected goldmine for a tournament that, despite record crowds, lost its major attractions in Novak Djokovic, Thanasis Kokkinakis and Madison Keys to withdrawals and upsets very early on.
Such body blows seem an aeon away now.
So, an introduction.
Victoria’s (Vicky) 58 minute win over Kimberley Birrell yesterday was nothing less than a full-scale demolition, the Aussie in a daze from the off and any points she did salvage felt like they came only during an occasional loosening up on victor’s part, 6-2, 6-1 the damage.
The stands were only half full still when Vicky clinched the match with a powerhouse forehand down the line. Indeed it was a case of blink and you miss and anyone who had shelled out for a ticket and turned up late – this morning’s match finished at 12.09pm – may well look back shortly and feel they missed out on the sport’s next superstar.
Vicky, the Canadian daughter of Congolese immigrants, is potentially that good.
She will not turn 20 until August this year which gives her three goes at clinching a grand slam singles title as a teen. What is more extraordinary is that this time last year she was playing a minor W35 tournament in the West indies, a level of play only remotely moved from where the combatants call their own lines and umpires are an unthought of luxury.
Today she sits at number 18 in the world rankings, a galaxy away from the 333 slot she occupied just 12 months ago. Although the warp speed leap up the rankings – which included a spectacular triumph as a wildcard at the WTA 1000 Montreal tournament last August – does not seem to have come as much of a surprise to the player herself.
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Has your game changed much over the past year she was asked? Not really but it can be an advantage facing players who still don’t know how much about her she said.
“I feel like it always just comes to your skill set and whether you’re consistent or an aggressive player. But when people don’t really know you how you play, I think that also plays a big part in it too because they don’t really have much strategy. Once you’ve become familiar, people with expose you more.”
Wider familiarity though is not yet a thing. Part of the appeal of the Adelaide International for the players is that they can walk to their matches across the footbridge from the Intercontinental hotel, where the majority stay.
Going to the tennis on Monday this week, I noticed Vicky (the obligatory big red Wilson bag strapped to be back) starting her walk back across the Torrens. She was on her own and, while there were plenty of people about, nobody was bothering her and she didn’t seem to expect them to.
She is, so far, almost entirely under the radar with the Australian public.
“It’s kind of nice being able to kind of just go everywhere normally. But whether there’s fans or not who come up to me, I really don’t mind. I feel like I’m a person to go out in public pretty often and just go to the shops or to a restaurant.
“I like being by myself a lot but whether there’s people there or not, I really don’t mind.”
There are places however where she is most definitely no longer go unrecognised.
Rolling Stone Africa magazine presumably doesn’t sell many copies in South Australia but anyone picking up last September’s issue will have seen Vicky clad in a glam black dress wielding a tennis racquet over her head. It is expertly shot and immediately eye catching and came about courtesy of her win in Montreal, where she beat four grand slam champions including Naomi Osaka in the final.
How did the photoshoot come about?
“They reached out after Montreal asking if I wanted to be featured. And I was like, ‘Why not? I was in New York anyway and it was nice.”
Less high society but also thoroughly enjoyable, has been her first ever go at strawberry picking this week.
“It’s my first time here and we went to a small German town not far away, about 40 minutes.”
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“Yeah, it was a really cute and I had fun.”
While she has a similar power game to world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, there is a subtlety of shot and high fitness level that will make it difficult for many players to surpass her this year.
“I like to play aggressive, I like to step into the ball and take control but unfortunately that’s not always going to go your way,” she said. “So when I have to, I also just stand a little bit back and just be more consistent. And especially against a lot of hard hitters, you can’t really the bash all the time.
Mirra Andreeva meanwhile, is not 19 until April and is already the eighth best player in the world. From Siberia, somewhat unusually, her parents moved her (and sister Erika) to Cannes when she was just six to further her tennis opportunities and she won seriously big tournaments in Indian Wells (known as the the fifth grand slam) and Dubai last year.
Her rise which began when she was still 15, has been meteoric too but her higher standing over the past few years means she has not yet played Vicky in the pro game. But there is a history.
“I remember I played her in Washington. It was a J1 (junior) tournament before going to US Open Juniors. I remember she always had a huge team of the Tennis Canada Federation. And I was like small, just me and my mom,” said Mirra.
“I think we played twice, the following year at the same tournament. It was in 2022 so I don’t think we can really take anything from those matches.”
Mirra has a focused match persona but off-court is forthcoming and delightful to talk to. She is also patently very loyal. Vicky is a friend, a very nice person she said, and it was left to the media to ask the obvious.
Did you win?
“Yes,” said a somewhat abashed Mirra.
Today’s singles finals will begin at 12.30pm, earlier than in previous years to allow the players to dash to the airport post match and grab a flight to Melbourne to be in situ for the Australian Open which starts on Sunday. They will be allowed to begin their first round match there a day later and bringing forward today’s match times is a clever move by Tennis SA.
It is why the Adelaide International – in a week of some other big event tumult locally – can draw players of Mirra and Vicky’s standing and potential. And long may it continue.
The men’s ATP 250 final meanwhile will be contested by Tomas Machac, the world ranked 35 who caused something of an upset in the first men’s semi final yesterday against Tommy Paul.
The Czech is something of a crowd favourite, style and fun to the fore, and will face the French left hander Ugo Humbert (who has been as high as world 13) who caused also overturned the odds late on Friday night against the top seeded Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, seeing him off in a final set tie-break.
Earlier this week, Evans wrote about Adelaide’s own tennis ace Thanasi Kokkinakis, you can read his story here.
Richard Llewelyn Evans is an Adelaide-based sports writer who has covered global tennis for the past three decades. His people -focused stories can be found at A Sporting Soul | Richard Llewelyn Evans.
