Newly Crowned French Open Champion Mirra Andreeva on Winning Her First Grand Slam and Emulating Roger Federer’s Aura

Reported by Vogue.

There is a specific kind of composure that separates good athletes from great ones — and at 19, Mirra Andreeva just showed the tennis world exactly what that looks like. The Siberia-born player claimed her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros this week, cutting through two weeks of brutal heat, gusty clay conditions, and a draw full of upsets with the kind of locked-in energy usually reserved for veterans twice her age. According to Vogue, pundits had long predicted a Slam was coming for Andreeva — just not quite this soon.

The run wasn't just technically impressive; it was a statement in emotional discipline. Andreeva, who had a widely circulated incident at Indian Wells earlier this year involving a middle finger aimed at the crowd, kept every combustible impulse in check through the back half of the draw. She dispatched an in-form Marta Kostyuk in the semis, then dismantled Maja Chwalinska — who had made a stunning run from qualifying — in the final. Her secret weapon, she says, was mental rewiring mid-tournament: more nervous in week one, then surgically focused from the quarterfinals onward, aided by 30-minute pre-match calls with her sports psychologist. The guiding mantra her psychologist gave her — "make a mistake rather than hesitate" — gave her permission to swing free instead of playing scared.

The Aura, the Jacket, and the Pins

If Andreeva's mindset has a blueprint, it's Roger Federer's — specifically his evolution from emotional young player to unshakeable champion. Knowing that even Federer once fought his own frustration on court gives her, as she put it, something to work toward rather than be ashamed of. Her coach, former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martínez, reinforces that culture of levity and trust — the two spend as much time joking around as strategizing, which is, Andreeva says, entirely by design. And then there's the Nike jacket she wore to the trophy ceremony, emblazoned with her now-signature phrase "I want to thank myself" — a line that first landed after her BNP Paribas Open win and has since taken on a life of its own. She's hoping it becomes an actual product line, provided she keeps winning. Given the trajectory, that seems like a reasonable bet.

Post-victory, Andreeva celebrated the way champions probably should: candy from the on-site bar (off-limits during the tournament), French fries, and dinner with her team. Lily Collins slid into her DMs. She left Paris with a lanyard so loaded with per-round pins — her stated motivation throughout the fortnight — that there was no room left. The whole picture is oddly, wonderfully human for someone who just announced herself as the future of women's tennis.

Andreeva isn't rewriting what a champion looks like so much as reminding us that the best ones are built from equal parts talent, humor, and the willingness to do the actual psychological work — and at 19, she's already figured that out.

Read the original at Vogue.