Andreeva vs Svitolina: unbeaten debutant takes on 2018 champion for WTA Finals title
Mirra Andreeva, 19, can become the first teenager to win the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova in 2004 when she faces Elina Svitolina in Sunday’s final in Indian Wells. The Russian beat the Ukrainian 6-4, 6-0 in their opening group match; the 2018 champion, 32, is chasing a record eight years between titles.
Mirra Andreeva and Elina Svitiolina, WTA Finals 2026 | © PsNewz
Mirra Andreeva is one match away from a perfect first WTA Finals. On Sunday in Indian Wells, the 19-year-old Russian, unbeaten all week, faces Elina Svitolina, the 2018 champion, whom she beat 6-4, 6-0 in their opening group match on Monday. It will be the first time since 2021, when Garbine Muguruza beat Anett Kontaveit twice, that two players meet in both the round robin and the final.
As she has done with every Russian and Belarusian player since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Svitolina is not expected to shake Andreeva’s hand at the end of the final. On Monday, she went straight to the umpire’s chair at the end of their match. Her week has also been marked by Aryna Sabalenka’s apology following their group match.
Andreeva, a perfect week so far
Andreeva has not dropped a set in Indian Wells. She beat Svitolina and Sabalenka 6-4, 6-0, then brushed aside stand-in Diana Shnaider 6-2, 6-1, before coming from a break down in both sets to beat Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-4 in the semi-finals. She has conceded just 18 games on her way to the final, the fewest by a finalist since the round robin returned in 2003, one fewer than Justine Henin in 2007 and Iga Swiatek in 2023.
“I remember how I was playing when I beat her here, but I knew it would be a tricky match. She’s an amazing player,” Andreeva said after their group match, referring to her win over Svitolina in the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells tournament in March 2025.
Svitolina’s angry comeback
Svitolina has turned her week around since that opening defeat. She came from a set down to beat Karolina Muchova 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, knocked out a fragile Sabalenka 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, then took her revenge on Linda Noskova, who had beaten her in the Billie Jean King Cup final, 6-2, 6-1 in the semi-finals.
“I was really angry at myself after the first match and the first set,” the Ukrainian told Sky Sports. “I tried to direct my anger towards the ball and I found my game in the end.”
Back at the event for the first time since 2019, Svitolina is playing her third WTA Finals final, after beating Sloane Stephens for the title in 2018 and losing to Ashleigh Barty in 2019. Among active players, only Serena and Venus Williams have won more matches at the event than her 13. She also leads the tour this season with 11 wins over top-10 players.
Records within reach
A title for Andreeva would make her the third teenager to win the WTA Finals on debut, after Chris Evert in 1972 and Maria Sharapova in 2004, and the first teenage champion since Sharapova. Only Serena Williams in 2012 and Swiatek in 2023 have won the event without dropping a set since 2003. The Roland-Garros champion would also join Barty, Petra Kvitova, Sharapova, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova on the list of players who won their first major and their first WTA Finals in the same year.
At 32, Svitolina would become only the third player aged 30 or over to win the event, after Navratilova in 1986 and Serena Williams from 2012 to 2014. Eight years and 17 days after her first title, she would also break Serena’s record for the longest gap between two WTA Finals titles (seven years and 361 days, from 2001 to 2009). The age gap between the two finalists, 12 years and 229 days, is the biggest in a WTA Finals final since Navratilova and Seles in 1991.
Head-to-head and what is at stake
Andreeva leads their head-to-head 2-1, all three matches on hard courts. She won their first meeting 7-5, 6-3 in Indian Wells in March 2025, Svitolina hit back 6-2, 6-4 in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January, before Monday’s group match.
Whatever happens, Andreeva will finish the year as world No 2, the youngest year-end No 2 since Sharapova in 2006. Svitolina would end the season at No 4, equalling her best year-end ranking from 2018, if she wins, and at No 6 if she loses.
An undefeated title would earn Andreeva $3,370,000 and 1,500 ranking points. A Svitolina win, with two round-robin victories instead of three, would be worth $3,140,000. Both amounts are well below the record $5,235,000 Elena Rybakina collected in Riyadh last year, after the tournament’s move to California cut the total prize money from $15.5 million to $10 million.
