'19-Year-Old Siberian Girl' Triumphs at French Open... Claims First Major Title

Defeats "Cinderella" Chwalinska in the Final

Mastered Skill and Power as a Teenager, Completes Her Rise with Strong Mentality

19-year-old Mira Andreyeva (Russia, ranked 8th) has lifted the women's singles championship trophy at the 2026 French Open tennis tournament.

On June 6 (local time), Andreyeva defeated Maja Chwalinska (Poland, ranked 114th) 2-0 (6-3, 6-2) in just 1 hour and 22 minutes in the women's singles final on the 14th day of the tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France. She achieved the remarkable feat of winning her first-ever major final appearance. Andreyeva received a winner's prize of 2.8 million euros (approximately 5 billion won).

19-year-old Mira Andreyeva is kissing the women's singles championship trophy at the 2026 French Open tennis tournament. Paris=AP Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Andreyeva hails from Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, approximately 4,000 kilometers east of Moscow, Russia. She turned professional in 2022 and has claimed the title five times on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour. Even as a junior, she was recognized for her technical ability on par with adult players, and as she added power to her game, she established herself as a dominant force acknowledged by all.

However, until now, she had not won a major tournament. In the previous French Opens, she reached the round of 32 in 2023, the semifinals in 2024, and the quarterfinals in 2025. With this year's victory, Andreyeva becomes the youngest women's singles champion at the tournament since Monica Seles (born in Yugoslavia, later representing the United States) achieved her third consecutive French Open title at the age of 18 in 1992. Among all major tournaments, she is the first teenager to clinch a championship since Coco Gauff (ranked 4th, United States) won the 2023 US Open. In next week's rankings, she will move up two spots to reclaim the 6th position.

The final piece of the puzzle for her championship run was her "strong mentality." Last year, in the French Open quarterfinals, she suffered a shocking defeat to home-court player Loïs Boisson, who had created a sensation as a wildcard entry. There was an assessment that, as a Russian player, Andreyeva was emotionally unsettled by the overwhelming support of the French fans for Boisson.

Andreyeva said, "In the past, if I got broken in my service game, I felt like it was the end of the world. Now I think, 'So what if I lose a game? I can always get it back,'" adding, "I've been trying to become calmer and more positive." She continued, "Even though I'm a difficult player to handle, my coach Conchita Martinez always pushes me to my limits and motivates me to train even when I don't feel like it, so I'm grateful to her. Winning this tournament has always been my dream, and I can't believe I'm actually holding this trophy."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.