On Sunday in the third round, Andreeva offered herself a second seed of the tournament, her compatriot Anastasia Potapova (No. 32), after benefiting from the abandonment of Barbora Krejcikova, the number 10, in the previous round, against whom she led 6-3, 4-0.

"Obviously, it's not the way I would have wanted to win this game. But still, I'm going to the next round, so I'm happy," she said.

She became the third youngest player from qualifying to reach a third Grand Slam round in the Open era (since 1968), after Kim Clijsters in 2009 and Coco Gauff in 2019.

Against Potapova, in a disjointed match, with 30 break balls in total on both sides, 9 of which were realized, she was the strongest, going back to the score as she was leading 4-2 in the second set to win 7-5.

"I found the right rhythm"

Her defensive coverage of the field and her strikes against proved her meteoric progress on a surface she discovered with the three rounds of qualifying.

"When I played my first qualifying match, I had no particular expectations because it was my first match on grass. I just tried to give it my all on the court. Since that first match, I've found the right rhythm. Now I can say it's working pretty well," she admitted.

Young Russian Mirra Andreeva against Anastasia Potapova in the third round of Wimbledon on July 3, 9 in London © Adrian DENNIS / AFP

She will face in the next round a true specialist of the surface with the American Madison Keys (18th in the world), who won the Eastbourne tournament for the second time in her career, just before the start of Wimbledon.

If journalists already dare a parallel with the British Emma Raducanu, who won the US Open in 2021, at 18, after coming out of qualifying, Andreeva does not let herself be intoxicated.

"Obviously, she did an amazing job," Andreeva admitted. "Everyone was impressed (...) It was unbelievable."

"But I don't want to think about it. I think it would disturb me, these types of thoughts. I just try to play every match without thinking about how far I've progressed in the tournament or what round I'm going to play, who I'm going to play against."

Too intimidated to talk to Murray

Even the presence of Netflix cameras, which follow her daily for a documentary, does not seem to destabilize the teenager who says she spends a lot of her free time on the video streaming platform.

"They're super nice people," she said of the cameramen who follow her.

Handshake between Mirra Andreeva (r) and Anastasia Potapova after the match between the two Russians in the 3rd round of Wimbledon on July 9, 2023 in London © Adrian DENNIS / AFP

"If I don't want them to film something today, they're super cool about it. They give me space. Before, I wasn't very comfortable, but now I rather like it," she admitted.

There is one area where Andreeva has not managed to keep her disarming naturalness, it is when she found herself close to her idol Andy Murray.

She told Roland Garros that she sent him a message when he won a Challenger tournament in Aix-en-Provence in May, and received in return his wishes of good luck for the Paris tournament.

But from virtual to real, the transition was more delicate.

"I met Andy Murray here," she said after the match against Krejcikova.

"But I'm too shy to talk to him. When I see him, I try to leave the building super quickly, just so I don't have to talk to him because I'm super shy," she confessed, with a smile.

© 2023 AFP