Mirra Andreeva secured one of the biggest wins of her young tennis career Monday – but she was one of the last at Wimbledon’s Centre Court to realize it.
After winning 6-2, 6-3 over American Emma Navarro in the Round of 16, the 18-year-old from Russia was clueless to the fact that the match was over in a hilarious and endearing scene.
When Navarro hit a drop shot into the net with Andreeva up 40-0, the umpire announced “Game, Set, Match” and the crowd erupted into cheers.
But Andreeva stood stone-faced, preparing for the next point – until she looked up at the scoreboard.
Finally realizing what had happened, she gave a sheepish smile and shook hands with Navarro and the umpire before saluting the crowd.
“A teenage quarterfinalist, she doesn’t realize she’s a teenage quarterfinalist!” said announcer Ben Cajee on the BBC broadcast. “Of course, she is new to all this.”
The match was the Centre Court debut for Andreeva, ranked seventh in the world after bursting onto the scene in recent years.
“What did she think the score was? 15-40?” BBC analyst Martina Navratilova laughed. “Sometimes people celebrate too early. She celebrated, like, 30 seconds later. That’s pretty funny.”
Perhaps Andreeva was extra locked in with Roger Federer, one of her tennis idols, looking on from the stands.
“It’s something crazy. I was super nervous before playing first time on Centre Court,” Andreeva said in her on-court post-match interview. “I tried not to look over [toward Federer], because I knew as soon as I would look there I would just completely lose my focus.”
Andreeva is the youngest Wimbledon quarterfinalist since Victoria Azarenka and Sabine Lisicki in 2009.
She’ll face off against Belinda Bencic on Wednesday with a berth in the semifinals on the line.