Mirra Andreeva found an interesting way to motivate herself to break into the top-20 as soon as possible as the 17-year-old decided that would be the moment when she would reward herself by getting a dog as a pet.
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After winning her maiden WTA 1000 title in Dubai in late February, the 17-year-old went from No. 14 to ninth-ranked player on the WTA Tour and that was her first time being ranked inside the top-10. Later in an interview with Tennis Channel, the Russian claimed she wasn't aware of her ranking milestone.
Following Andreeva's quarterfinal win over Elina Svitolina, a reporter asked the Russian how it was possible that she didn't know that she became a top-10 player after Dubai. That's when she revealed that she pretty much stopped following the rankings after making it into the top-20.
Andreeva: I was playing for a dog
"Before, I was always checking live rankings, because before, I was playing for a dog. So after every match I play, I would check the live rankings to see if I did it," the two-time WTA winner revealed.
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"But now it's not that I don't care, but I try to not focus on that, and I try to focus on the match that I have to play. I like this. I would say it's pretty easy, because I don't think about the rankings or the points I have to defend if I have to, so I just don't really follow the rankings or anything, like this is a bit easier for me."
If you wonder when exactly Andreeva entered the top-20 club for the first time, it happened on October 7th last year.
In her Indian Wells presser, the 17-year-old also shared that she was still in the process of getting a dog and it would likely be a female labradoodle.
