Australian Open 2024: Who is Mirra Andreeva, the 16-year-old who is setting the stage on fire at Melbourne Park

The 112th edition of the Australian Open is underway at Melbourne Park and has been quite the eventful occasion so far. While Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka have begun their title defences with dominant victories, comeback stars such as Andy Murray and Naomi Osaka have bowed out with first-round defeats, the former hinting at having made his final appearance in the year's first Grand Slam.Also making headlines at the Australian Open this year is 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva, who produced a stunning comeback against France's Diane Parry, beating her 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-5) to storm into the fourth round.The teen sensation was trailing Parry 1-5 at one stage in the deciding set of her third-round encounter against Parry before winning five games in a row to surge ahead. The 21-year-old Frenchwoman fought back to force the contest to enter a tie-breaker, but the Russian held her nerve to eventually come out on top. Andreeva's never-say-die attitude earned her praise from icons of the game such as Murray, who took to microblogging website X to heap praise on her.In the process, Andreeva became only the fourth woman to enter the fourth round at both Wimbledon and Australian Open before turning 17, joining an elite list that comprises Martina Hingis, Tatiana Golovin and Coco Gauff.Along the way, she had further bolstered her credentials as a giant-killer by demolising Tunisian Ons Jabeur, whom she considers her idol, 6-0, 6-2 in the second round.Who is Mirra Andreeva? Andreeva was born on 29 April, 2007 in Russia's Krasnoyarsk, and began playing at the age of six. She had initially moved to the coastal town of Sochi before shifting base to the Mediterranean town of Cannes on France's southern coast with older sister Erika, who also happens to be a tennis player. The two began training with Jean-René Lisnard and Jean-Christophe Faurel in Cannes and have been based there ever since.Andreeva had made her WTA Tour debut in the 2022 Jasmin Open, receiving a wildcard for the singles event, where she would suffer a first-round exit at the hands of Anastasia Potapova.She won her maiden WTA tour match at the age of 15 by beating Canada's Leylah Fernandez at the Madrid Open, for which she had received a wild card. In the process, she became the third youngest player to win a main-draw match on the WTA Tour behind Coco Gauff and CiCi Bellis.She would make her Grand Slam debut at the French Open later that year as a qualifier, where she would eventually get knocked out by Gauff in the third round. Andreeva would then go as far as the fourth round in the 2023 Wimbledon, once again participating as a qualifier, eventually losing against Madison Keys. She would reach the second round of the US Open before getting knocked out by eventual champion Gauff.Andreeva faces Barbora Krejcikova in the fourth round and will have her sights fixed on a maiden Grand Slam quarter-final appearance, which will further push her towards stardom.