French Open 2024: Mirra Andreeva Copies Novak Djokovic’s Bossy Roger Federer Taunt to Turn Rowdy Parisian Crowd on Her Side

If there’s a perfect spot to witness history repeat itself, Roland Garros is the stage. It has been nearly five years since Novak Djokovic‘s massive win over Roger Federer in Wimbledon was recorded in history books. While Mirra Andreeva recently managed to surpass the R4 challenge against Varvara Gracheva, she uttered a simple response drawing inspiration from the Serb, taking fans back to the historical incident.

The local crowd was one-sidedly backing the French WTA star Varvara Gracheva. While the 17-year-old still managed to secure a remarkable win, she decided to draw inspiration from Novak Djokovic’s memorable dialogue.

“When they were screaming Varvara Varvara, I was trying to imagine that they screamed my name and it helped,” the Russian said, revealing the trick behind her massive straight-set victory over the fan favorite rival.

This reminded fans of a similar incident that took place back in 2019. Both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic traveled long paths to make it to the finals at Wimbledon. While the crowd one-sidedly favored the Swiss tennis maestro as usual, Djokovic still managed to shut his rival down with a massive five-setter victory.

On being asked about how he managed to ignore the energy against him, the Serb responded, “When the crowd is right chanting Roger I hear Novak…I know it sounds silly but it is like that.” It was a terrible match in Federer’s star studded history at the Grass Slam, so much so that he stated later that he’d blocked it from memory.

Today’s clay court defeat might be similar for Gracheva but much like Djokovic, Andreeva will forever remember this moment from the early years of her career.

While this was recorded as one of the most historic statements from the Serb, Mirra Andreeva’s parallel response came out as a perfect example of history’s repetition.

Mirra Andreeva rewrites history on her run for the French Open title

The fans are currently embracing the quarter-finalists at the Roland Garros. Besides every other player who attained the spot in the top eight, Mirra Andreeva’s run is the most anticipated. The Russian tennis star grabbed the opportunity to etch her name in the history books by making it to the top eight at Roland Garros.

But what’s so special about it, you might think? At just the age of 17, Andreeva became the youngest WTA star to make it to the fourth round in three of the four grand slams, covering all the surfaces including grass, hard, and clay. While she came close to touching the massive feat by making it to the top 16 in Melbourne earlier this year, her victory over Peyton Stearns helped her steal the record held by her compatriot Anna Kournikova.

Mirra Andreeva is proving to be quite dominant at Roland Garros. While she’s set to face Aryna Sabalenka in the next round, the levels of challenge continue to be harder, in order to test her resilience.