Down 5-1 in the third set, 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva rockets into 2024 Australian Open fourth round

Teen sensation Mirra Andreeva battled back from the brink in the third round of the 2024 Australian Open, rallying from 5-1 and match point down in the deciding set to defeat Diane Parry, 1-6, 6-1 7-6 (10-5) on Court 3 in two hours and 23 minutes.

Andreeva, still just 16 and only a year removed from reaching the junior final in Melbourne, caused one of the biggest upsets of the tournament when she took Rod Laver Arena by storm, stunning former world No. 2 Ons Jabeur in the second round. The teenager backed up that upset to reach the second week of a Grand Slam for the second time in her young career. The first came at Wimbledon last summer, where she also reached the fourth round.

But first, the animal-loving youngster had to fend off a game challenger in Parry, who kicked off her week with an upset of her own over No. 30 seed Wang Xinyu. The 21-year-old enjoyed a breakout 2022 season when she reached back-to-back Grand Slam third rounds at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and appeared poised to better that result when she rolled through the opening set against Andreeva.

Rediscovering the fearless tennis that helped her stun Jabeur 48 hours ago, Andreeva leveled the match by the identical score but soon found herself on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline for the second time in three sets. With defeat appearing inevitable, Andreeva dug deep and clawed one of the breaks back behind three backhand winners.

Down a match point in the following game, Andreeva forced a forehand error from Parry and crunched two more backhand winners to keep the pressure on the Frenchwoman, who began to show visible frustration as her lead slipped away. Picking up a code violation for racquet abuse, she seemed down and out when Andreeva won a fifth straight game to serve for the match, but Parry showed remarkable poise to force a final-set tiebreaker.

More winners took Andreeva to five match points, and though Parry saved one with a forehand winner, she couldn’t control the second and Andreeva advanced in just under two and a half hours.

Standing between Andreeva and a spot in the quarterfinals will be the winner of a night match between another former world No. 2, Barbora Krejcikova, and Australian qualifier Storm Hunter, who ended 2023 as the WTA year-end doubles No. 1.