Mirra Andreeva continues to post seemingly improbable performances, coming back from being down 5-1 in the final set against Diane Parry to win the match.

It was the second time the two have met, with the 16-year-old Andreeva also winning the first match. On Thursday, it seemed as though Parry was going to pull even in their head-to-head, having won the first set 6-1 and leading in the third 5-1.

But Andreeva saved match point at 5-2 before rattling off five games in a row. Eventually, she won the 10-point tiebreak.

“I would prefer to win in straight sets. I think everybody would,” Andreeva said afterwards. “But it’s also good to win when you’re fighting for every point. I think I will have a lot of matches like this in my career. I’m just happy with the win. I don’t care how I win exactly with the score and the time, I just want to win.

“If it takes three sets, then I’m happy to win with three sets. If it takes two sets, then of course I’m happy to win with two sets.”

Andreeva gave credit to her competitor, who she says played “really well” in the first set.

“It was really tough for me to do something,” Andreeva said afterwards. “Then I just found my way. Honestly, overall it was a crazy match for me. In the third set I didn’t really expect to come back, but I did it, so I’m very happy.”

Mirra Andreeva is making her Australian Open debut in style, beating 6-seed Ons Jabeur in straight sets.

The 16-year-old’s first career top-10 victory came in decisive fashion, as Andreeva won 6-0, 6-2 in just 54 minutes. Afterwards, the 47th-ranked Russian player had nothing but great things to say about her opponent, who she considers one of her idols.

“It was one of my dreams to play against her because I really like the way she plays,” she told reporters afterwards. “As I said before, I’m inspired by her, so it means a lot. Today, it meant a lot, this match that I won.

“Now, after the match, she came to me, she wished me luck. I just know that she is who she is and she never changes. That’s what I like about her.”

Andreeva dominated from the beginning to the end, facing just one break point throughout the match. She hit 13 winners and only 10 unforced errors. Jabeur, in contrast, hit just nine winners to 24 unforced errors.

According to the WTA, Andreeva is just the second-youngest player in the Open era to concede three games or fewer against a top-10 seed at a grand slam. Jelena Dokic is the youngest, having beaten Martina Hingis at Wimbledon in 1999.

The teenager called it “probably the best match” of her career thus far.

“The first set, I didn’t expect that I would play this good. Second set was also not bad,” she said. “For me, it was an amazing match. I’m super happy with the level that I showed today on the court.”

She’s the first player aged 17 or younger to defeat a top-10 player at the Australian Open since Coco Gauff beat then-defending champion Naomi Osaka in the 2019 tournament’s third round. Gauff won her second round match in straight sets on Tuesday, extending her winning streak at Grand Slams to nine matches.

When Coco Gauff faced off against 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva of Russia during the third round of the 2023 French Open on Saturday, it marked the first time Gauff, 19, played a Grand Slam singles match against a player younger than herself.

Gauff, the runner-up at last year’s French Open, lost the first set to Andreeva, but rallied back in the next two sets, ultimately winning the match 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-1 to advance to the fourth round, where she’ll face Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

But while much of the media ahead of the match focused on age, that topic wasn’t on Gauff’s mind when she stepped onto the court.

“I was just thinking about playing the opponent,” she said. “To be honest, you don’t really think about (age) as an athlete.”

Asked after if she thinks the media focuses too much on that topic, Gauff smiled.

“I’m gonna be honest: Yes. … Age is important to mention sometimes but, as a player and going through it, yes, it gets a little bit annoying. Because I feel like I’m the type of person, I don’t need to be praised because of my age or anything. I prefer just to be praised because of my game, not because of things I’m doing at whatever age.”

Gauff added that she was baffled the other day when she saw a stat about how she had the most bagels (sets that end 6-0) of any teenager on tour.

“I feel like some of these stats, I don’t know, y’all be finding the smallest details,” she said. “I’m like who keeps track of this stuff?”

Even if Gauff doesn’t put much stock in age, she knows experience plays a role. She credits her years on the tour with helping her learn to control her body language, especially in moments of frustration.

“I didn’t realize how much my body language showed until I started watching the film of me,” Gauff explained. “I’m like, yeah, if I was the other side looking at me, I’d be like, ‘Yeah, this girl is down.'”

At moments during Saturday’s match, Andreeva appeared clearly frustrated, smashing a racket during the first set and later hitting a ball into the crowd. Asked by a reporter about her opponent’s “teenage behavior,” Gauff pushed back.

“It’s just being an athlete and being frustrated, to be honest. People do it at all ages, so I’m not gonna blame it on her age,” she said, noting that smashing a racquets is normal for athletes.

“I mean, you shouldn’t do it, but, you know, it’s part of growing up and part of life. So I’m not gonna sit here and berate her for it. I hope you guys don’t either.”