Better late than never as Andreeva finally takes to the court

Holder Mirra Andreeva got a delayed look at a match on Wednesday after a bye followed by a walkover, with the fifth seed booking a quarter-final at the WTA Dubai event.

The teenager posted a 7-5, 6-3 win over Jaqueline Cristian  in a victory riddled with 13 service breaks.

The defending champion will next face No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova, who endured a similar late start, winning her own first match of the week over Indonesian wild card Janice Tjen  6-1, 6-3 in 70 minutes in similar circumstances to Andreeva.

Both of the quarter-finalists will be working to make amends for early exits last week in Doha during the February run of events through the Gulf region.

Andreeva was not overly pleased with her sloppy win over Romanian Cristian, with the 18-year-old winner plagued by more than 30 unforced errors including seven double-faults.

“I feel my game was really far from perfect today. I’m just happy I could walk away from the court as a winner. 

“It was really tough to play here today, I really struggled with conditions.”

Andreeva added: “I’m just trying to force myself to freaking hit the ball. I was tense, I was nervous, 

“I cared a lot about every single point that I was playing and sometimes I was really scared to miss. Inside of myself, I was saying, ‘Mirra, you just have to dig deep and force yourself to hit the ball, otherwise she’s going to take advantage of it and she’s just going to go for her shots.'”

The teen will be out for revenge after Anisimova cut short a 13-match win streak last March in the Miami third round.