While Mirra Andreeva is having a remarkable year on the tour, her elder sister, Erika, has also begun picking up her form. After her 2025 season was severely affected by a concerning mental health hiatus, she has improved both her fitness level and her game this year. Erika’s latest result saw her put in arguably one of the best performances of her career.

The 21-year-old racked up a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over Despina Papamichail in the first round of the WTA 125 event held at Kitzbuhel. The latter was the eighth seed of the tournament, so this is indeed quite a big result for Erika. She controlled the match from the get-go and was comfortably the better player on the court.

Papamichail, ranked No. 167, was weak on her serve throughout the match. Not only did she commit four double-faults, but she also managed to win just 47% and 25% of the points on her first and second serves, respectively. This allowed Erika to gain a break on six occasions during the match.

This is just Erika’s fifth tournament on the WTA circuit this year. The victory over Papamichail is just her third of the season, highlighting just how much she has to struggle for positive results. Her previous win had come in the qualifying rounds of Wimbledon. She had defeated China’s YeXin Ma 6-0, 6-3 in the first round of qualifying, but then got knocked out by Kayla Day in the next match.

It was after her win over YeXin that Erika opened up about the mental health hiatus that she had taken last year. Her breakout season in 2024 had seen her ranking peak at No. 65. But her form dwindled significantly in 2025, and a defeat in the first round of Wimbledon qualifiers proved to be the final straw.

This was Erika’s ninth consecutive defeat, and she would suddenly disappear from the tour after this for the next four months. At first, many had suspected that she had sustained an injury, but the truth was far different.

“I wasn’t mentally in the right place,” Erika said in an interview with the WTA Tour in June. “I was devastated by [the Wimbledon loss]. At that point, I didn’t enjoy to play. I didn’t feel myself on court at all. [I didn’t] know what to do. Only to break, and to see if I will want to play again or not. First month, I didn’t play, I didn’t do anything at all.”

Erika further revealed that her morale had taken a major hit due to her poor results on the tour, and this also affected her mental health.

“I [felt] like I’m not good enough, I’m not doing well enough, how I’m supposed to do,” she said. “[I] put myself below the bottom that I’m s— as a player, s— as a person, I don’t deserve anything,” she added.

She eventually returned from the hiatus in October at the Jinan Open. But a first-round loss to Arina Rodionova would result in Erika not playing another match on the WTA circuit for the next five months, and she was instead in action at ITF tournaments. She then came back at the Miami Open but got knocked out in the first round once again, this time to Rebecca Sramkova.

Erika has alternated between the WTA and ITF circuits this season. She has been so desperate to improve her form that she even ended up missing Mirra Andreeva in action at the French Open final last month. This was because she was travelling to Zagreb for an ITF W100 event at the time.

Mirra Andreeva praised by sister Erika for French Open triumph

But Erika was all praise for Mirra Andreeva when asked about her victory at the French Open. She also highlighted the challenges that her younger sister had to overcome for the monumental triumph.

“I feel really proud of her. Because I know her own challenges, maybe something you don’t see on the screen. I know what she deals with. I know her since a very young age. She always was struggling with the moments when something will not go her way, to stay in the game, to stay calm, to not let everything down,” she said in the same interview.

Though their tour schedules couldn’t be more different, the sisters still share a close bond. Erika had revealed that they were only able to stay together for three days after Mirra’s victory at the Roland Garros. But they enjoyed their time to the fullest and even went on a shopping trip.

Like Mirra, Erika’s ranking has also risen significantly in the last few months. She was at No. 362 in February, but has worked her way back to No. 231. More importantly, she is now feeling way better on the court, and that previous feeling of inadequacy has long vanished.

Erika is now set to lock horns against Mia Ristic in the second round of the WTA event in Kitzbuhel. A victory here would see the Russian secure her first quarterfinal berth on the WTA tour this season.