Battle of the sexes: 16-year-old teenage phenom Mirra Andreeva ASTONISHINGLY

Mirra Andreeva was left in an awkward spot during a recent exhibition tournament, the 2023 Negometal Open de Bourg-de-Peage when there was a sudden battle of the sexes in the final due to a player refusing to face off against her.

Andreeva entered the exhibition being based in Europe in order to get some match practice ahead of the 2024 WTA season, with the 16-year-old voted Newcomer of the Year and was a true success story of the season. In the semi-final, she overpowered former Russian, Varvara Gracheva and was supposed to take on Donna Vekic in the final.

Kostyuk refuses to play

However, Marta Kostyuk was set to replace her and decided she didn’t want to play Andreeva due to her being from Russia and the continued war between her homeland and Andreeva’s. They had to quickly find a replacement. However they couldn’t.

But there was one player available who was Yanis Ghazouani Durand who trains at the Peageois club which is local to the exhibition. So an unexpected Battle of the Sexes was set which fans of course did not expect to see at the start of the tournament.

As expected, despite being World No.1145, he showed his physical advantage at decisive times in the tie. Andreeva herself in the first set looked to take it to a tie-break 5-5, but Ghazouani Durand started to show his quality. He won five consecutive games sealing the opening set 7-5 and then building a one-break advantage to lead the second 3-0. He went 5-1 up from there as Andreeva saved a match point at 5-2 down, but ultimately despite being very far down in the rankings, it went to the club pro over the World No.57 on the WTA Tour and one of the biggest prospects in Women’s tennis.

It is also another iteration of the war dominating even in an exhibition, with instead of a snubbed handshake, Kostyuk refused to play at all. But given it was only an exhibition, it can be done. This though of course put Andreeva and the tournament in a tricky situation and an awkward one having to pit ATP v WTA to save it.