Annabel Croft bigs up Wimbledon star Andy Murray joked ‘wanted her eyes fixing’

Annabel Croft has bigged up 16-year-old Wimbledon star Mirra Andreeva, who progressed to the second spherical of the SW19 match after defeating Wang Xiyu on Wednesday. Andreeva hit the headlines earlier this yr when she described Andy Murray as “beautiful” earlier than the Scot joked she wanted to get “her eyes fixed.”

Andreeva booked her place in the principle draw at Wimbledon after profitable three qualifying matches forward of the match. The Russian then overcame Wang 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to safe a second-round encounter with Barbora Krejcikova.

And forward of {the teenager}’s conflict with Krejcikova, Croft mentioned: “She is really, really exciting. It’s amazing isn’t it how every year somebody just emerges and breaks through and it gets everybody talking about them.

“You know, she’s so young and already incredibly successful. She’s already ranked 102 in the world, she’s qualified here quite effortlessly actually – she only dropped one set in qualifying and then won the first round as well. Reached the fourth round in Madrid where she beat Leylah Fernandez who reached the finals of the US Open.

“She’s beaten Haddad Maia, [Magda] Linette who reached the semi-finals in Australia – so she’s already notching up very decent wins against very experienced opponents. And she’s so slight. I mean she doesn’t look like a big physique, she does look 16, so I think there’s a big development to go with her body but she’s very wily. She doesn’t have a lot of power but she’s got a really amazing tennis brain.”

Andreeva got here face-to-face with Murray on the Madrid Open earlier this yr and was fast to go with the Briton as she mentioned: “It’s just the atmosphere here is so special. When you are here and you take lunch with all these stars… You see Andy Murray and you see his face, he’s so beautiful in real life. He is so amazing. The atmosphere to be here amongst all these players is just incredible.”

Murray later noticed the teen’s feedback after a video of the interview was posted to social media. And the 36-year-old responded: “Imagine how good she’s going to be when she gets her eyes fixed,” earlier than including a laughing face emoji.

Murray, himself, received his 2023 Wimbledon marketing campaign off to a flying begin as he defeated fellow Briton Ryan Peniston 6-3, 6-0, 6-1. The veteran is ready to go head-to-head with Stefanos Tsitsipas within the second spherical on Thursday after the Greek ace overcame Dominic Thiem in a fifth-set tiebreak within the first spherical.