Mirra Andreeva: What Forced Her Legendary Coach Conchita Martinez to Finally Give Up Tennis?

Mirra Andreeva’s coach, Conchita Martinez, is finally shedding light on why she left the tennis world. The former WTA player, who once was the first Spaniard to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon, put her racquet to rest in 2006. However, she continued her journey as a tennis coach and is now guiding the Russian player to new heights in tennis. But, when it comes to playing, Martinez described how her journey was “very difficult.”

Mirra Andreeva is currently busy preparing for her quarterfinal match against Aryna Sabalenka. However, behind her is the former world No. 2 player, Conchita Martinez, who is guiding the 17-year-old player to success. But her own journey in tennis has not been smooth. As she appeared for a podcast interview for “TennisWorthy”, the host, Chris Bowers, asked her, “Just a word about retiring as a player, how easy is it to retire, when it’s been really all your life that you have been in tennis?”

Martinez responded, “Not easy at all, it’s very difficult. It’s very difficult. And you have to be, I don’t know, for me, I can only talk for my experience. I had like a little, I had an injury with my my heel, it wasn’t allowing me to practice the way I wanted to play my best tennis and when you’re like I say, making the quarter, semis, finals, et cetera.”

Mirra Andreeva’s coach, who won 33 singles titles in her career, found herself at a crossroads as her tennis became “a little slower” after that injury to the Achilles tendon. Talking about the lack of fitness that compelled her to say goodbye after the second and third rounds of many tournaments, she also talked about the year 2004, which proved to be even more difficult. “So 2004 was a little bit hard for me because of my injury and not being able to do fitness the way that it was gonna help me the most to continue to play at that high level. So in 2004, I almost retired.”

But the five-time Fed Cup winner decided to push it a year further as she stepped into the 17th year of her career in 2005, where she won her first singles titles at Pattaya, the first of the year and the first at the tournament. And she also discussed how that gave her a final closure to tennis. “So I play one more year. So I think that year helped me a lot to be in peace of my retirement, because if I would have retired 2004. I wasn’t quite ready for that. 2005 was the right now. 2006 I retired. I played 2005 I won one more tournament. I made it to the finals in Davis. So it was good. I was at peace. I had surgery. And I told you it was 2006.”

The Spaniard, who has three Olympic medals to her name, has also made it to the Tennis Hall of Fame, where her name still remains inducted. Although she left tennis because of her injuries, she kept in touch with the tennis world as she served as a captain of the Spanish Davis Cup team for five years! However, now her role has further diversified into coaching. Martinez, a former part-time coach of Garbine Muguruza, later coached Karolina Pliskova as well. 

After pushing Muguruza to achieve the Wimbledon Championship in 2017, Mirra Andreeva’s coach was later honored as the 2021 WTA Coach of the Year. However, currently, her destination is Paris. There, she is helping Andreeva achieve her dream at the French Open. And Andreeva is grateful to have her by her side.

Mirra Andreeva shows her gratitude for her coach after her fourth-round win in Paris

Mirra Andreeva, who has embraced the spot of world No. 38, is showing her incredible prowess on-court this season in Paris. After swiftly winning against top players like Victoria Azarenka, is slowly climbing up the ladder of the rankings. And according to her, Martinez has a big role to play in this success of hers! 

“When I have days when I don’t feel great on court or when sometimes I’m, I don’t know, too pissed off, she always gives me a lot of positive, a lot of great energy. We always have [a] nice atmosphere. We always laugh, we always talk about something. So this helps me a lot, so I like that,” she said in her latest post-match interview.

She also previously addressed her coach after her victory over Gracheva and said, “We have to thank my coach for this. We’ve worked on it together.I’m really happy you can see that I stay calm in the tough moments.”

As both of them continue their journey in the French Open, the tennis world will not only remember Andreeva’s skills on-court but also the contribution made by her coach, Conchita Martinez, to the tennis world.