A few days after her elimination in the second round of the Australian Open qualifiers, Fiona Ferro is in Manama to compete in a challenger. In the first round, she defeated the young Russian Erika Andreeva.
Fiona Ferro is already back. After the disappointment of her elimination on the brink of the Australian Open, the player from the Alpes-Maritimes has changed continents to move on. Competing in the W75 in Manama, Bahrain, the Valbonne native had, the previous day, overcome the American Jenna Defalco in two sets during the qualifying rounds. Today, for her entry into the tournament, Fiona Ferro faced a well-known player on the circuit, the Russian Erika Andreeva (21 years old, world No. 273). The older sister of phenomenon Mirra Andreeva (17 years old, world No. 7), had a difficult 2025. Far from her best level (world No. 65 in 2024), she lost a lot of points mid-last year, which resulted in a ranking far from her standards. Since then, much like Fiona Ferro, she is searching for her form to get back to the top and the major tournaments.
In her comeback match, the Russian was no match. Although she started well in the game, Erika Andreeva couldn’t maintain her lead for long. With much more rhythm, Fiona Ferro had no difficulty turning the situation around to take the first set (6-2).
More comfortable on serve, the Valbonne native corrected this flaw in her game that had let her down in Australia and more broadly since her return. A problem that Erika Andreeva suffered throughout the match. Broken five times out of seven, it was impossible for the Russian to hope for anything, and she was logically defeated.
Final score, (6-2/6-1) in 1 hour 36 minutes and a full boost of confidence for Fiona Ferro, who can hope to have a good run in Manama and most importantly, string matches together to regain her rhythm.
In the next round, she will meet Georgian Ekaterine Gorgodze, the 7th seed, in a match that promises to be more contested.
