Andreeva marches into French Open quarter-finals after dismissing Gracheva

Mirra Andreeva continues to mark herself as one of the most promising players in the world as she became the second-youngest woman in the 21st century to reach the quarter‑finals at Roland Garros with a 7-5, 6-2 win against ­Varvara Gracheva.

Just over a year after Andreeva first broke through on the WTA weeks before her 16th birthday, she con­tinues to make strong progress. Armed with her intelligent, varied game and endless grit, the 17‑year‑old has not dropped a set outside of her spectacular late-night win against Victoria Azarenka in the second round. Next week she will break the top 30 for the first time in her career.“I’m proud for everything; for all the matches that I won, for all the matches that I have played,” said Andreeva, who is two years older than Bulgaria’s Sesil Karatantcheva was when she reached the last eight in 2005. “I would say that, for example, the most memorable match would be the match against Vika when we ­finished really late. That was really hard for me the first time when I ­finished as late as we did. After, it was really hard to recover.