WTA Finals: Andreeva beats Svitolina 6-4, 6-0 in opening Group B match

Mirra Andreeva began the WTA Finals with a win. On Monday 9 November 2026 she beat Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-0 in Group B. The match lasted just over an hour. The season-ending tournament is being held in Indian Wells, California.

How the match went

It was Andreeva's singles debut at the WTA Finals. Svitolina won the event in 2018. The Russian, seeded second, arrived in California as this year's Roland Garros champion. The Ukrainian was seeded fifth.

The start was even, with both players holding serve up to 2-2. The turning point came in the fifth game, when Svitolina double-faulted on break point. Andreeva went ahead and extended her lead to 4-2. The Ukrainian still had a chance to recover at 5-4, but failed to take it.

The 19-year-old Russian dominated the second set. She broke her opponent at the start, then did so twice more. She won the last seven games of the match. Svitolina had six break-point chances in the whole match and converted none. Four of them came in the final game, as she tried to avoid losing the second set to love. Andreeva got out of trouble each time and finished the match on her first match point.

A rematch and the group picture

The win avenged Andreeva's defeat to Svitolina in the last 16 of the Australian Open in January, where the Ukrainian won 6-2, 6-4. The Russian now leads their head-to-head 2-1. She first beat Svitolina in the quarter-final in Indian Wells in 2025.

After the first round of Group B matches, Andreeva and Aryna Sabalenka each have one win. The Belarusian earlier beat Karolina Muchova 7-6(2), 7-5. On Wednesday the two winners play each other, while Svitolina faces the Czech player. The top two players in each group go through to the semi-finals.