MELBOURNE, Australia — Some curses are invisible, others are whispered, while still others take the form of playing surfaces painted bright blue, with the word MELBOURNE in capital letters.
For Mirra Andreeva, the curse of the Australian Open feels like the latter. Speaking after a tense, sometimes grueling, three-set victory over Moyuka Uchijima, which was decided in a tiebreak match, the young tennis prodigy, particularly prominent on the WTA circuit, declared that the Court 3 at Melbourne Park is “cursed.”
“The only thing that was on my mind was that this court is cursed and I don’t want to play there anymore,” she said during her press conference.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about that stupid short, it’s all because of that short.”
If Court 3 is indeed cursed, Andreeva was able to break her spell twice. During the 2023 edition of the Australian Open, then aged 16, she revealed her tennis talent and her ability to ward off her demons during a third round match against Diane Parry. She lost the first set 6-1, won the second, and after being down 5-1, she managed to come back to 6-5. After many twists and turns, she ended up winning the tiebreak. On Wednesday, against Uchijima, a year older and with much more experience, she once again drew on her almost supernatural talent.
After leading the tiebreak 6-3, the signs of the curse began to show. Although she took the lead at 6-5 after some solid points from Uchijima, Andreeva prepared to convert an easy volley to take a 7-5 lead. Unfortunately, the ball went over the edge, as if guided by an invisible hand. On the next point, she missed a simple shot and, before she knew it, she was down 6-8. Andreeva had to find a solution.
“I just tried to, you know, forget and play every point,” she said. Fortunately for her, the curse of Court 3 also struck Uchijima, as it did when the latter served for the match at 5-4, committing a double fault and three unforced errors. A basic shot went out of play, and from that point on, Andreeva took the reins of her destiny, exploiting three errors from her opponent: one on serve and two on power shots, to advance to a match against seeded number 23, Magdalena Frech.
-She had lifted the curse, but not without scaring her coach Conchita Martinez, she added.
“I’m not going to say exactly what she said, because I think that would upset a lot of people.”
“She just said, my God. She was a little upset with me, because she admitted to being very nervous… The first word wasn’t, you know, the best. I cannot repeat it here.”
Curses take all kinds of forms.
(Fred Lee / Getty Images)
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