Mirra Andreeva’s promise to Murray and more top 2024 press moments

After the formalities of playing a match are done, there are still some responsibilities to be handled. In 2024, the press room was the site of not only some of the year’s best one-liners but also some memorable moments.

Here are some of our favorites from a year’s worth of press conferences:

Mirra Andreeva makes, and keeps, promise to print out Andy Murray’s praise

Since she broke through on the Hologic WTA Tour last year, Mirra Andreeva has made no secret of her admiration for former world No. 1 Andy Murray — and the Scot paid back some of that love during Andreeva’s run to the fourth round of the Australian Open in January. Murray was particularly impressed by the mental strength Andreeva showed in a three-set third-round win over France’s Diane Parry, where she saved a match point before winning, and took to X, formerly Twitter, to praise the teenager’s competitive fire.

It was an interaction that left the 2023 WTA Newcomer of the Year giddy when she met with reporters afterwards — and led to her making a promise.

“I didn’t really think that he would watch a match, then after he would tweet, he would comment something,” she said. “Honestly, I will try to print it out somehow. I don’t know, I will put it in a frame. I will bring it everywhere with me. I will maybe put it on the wall so I can see it every day.”

A few months later in Madrid, Andreeva gave an update: She did, in fact, print out the praise, and it occupied a place of pride in her tennis bag.

“It was a gift from my friend, and it’s always with me in my bag,” she said in an interview with Tennis Channel. “So, when I said that, I was not joking: I did it for real!”

With Murray now retired as of this summerwill Andreeva keep this memento for the years to come?

Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka choose sides in Kendrick vs. Drake feud

Nine diss tracks may or may not have been enough for some hip-hop fans to choose a side in this spring’s beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake — but as far as Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka were concerned, the winner was clear.

When asked in Rome, both leaned in favor of Lamar — with Gauff even invoking the name of a WTA legend in her reasoning.

“Drake dissed Serena [Williams]so I have to go with Kendrick,” Gauff said at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, referencing the Canadian artist’s 2022 track “Middle of the Ocean,” where he name-dropped the former World No.1.

Iga Swiatek gives a full review of Taylor Swift’s latest album

In keeping in tune with Rome’s musical theme, Iga Swiatek — possibly the Hologic WTA Tour’s biggest fan of Taylor Swift — flashed her Swiftie credentials at the Foro Italico by giving a comprehensive review of the singer’s 11th album, The Tortured Poets Departmentthat dropped in April.

Calling it a “totally different vibe than Midnights” (Swift’s previous new release from 2022), Swiatek said she had seven favorites from the 31-track double album, but joked that the artist “wouldn’t approve” of her listening just some of the songs.

“I feel like the words are so complicated that she focused more on that than the music itself,” she said. “It’s less poppy. There’s not much beat or whatever.

“I feel like the melody is kind of adjusting to the words, if you know what I mean … but I like it.”

Swiatek also said she hoped to get a chance to see Swift’s mega-hit Eras Tour in person before the year ended — a dream that came true for her in June.

Does anyone want to ask Donna Vekic about her bangs?

The second half of Donna Vekic’s 2024 proved seminal in the Croatian’s career, as she reached her first Grand Slam singles semifinal at Wimbledon and followed it up by winning the silver medal at the Paris Olympics — a first for a woman from her country at the Games.

But one newsworthy update in her life didn’t get the kind of reaction that she was hoping for: a new haircut, which she got mid-tournament during the US Open.

After more than 10 questions from reporters following her third-round win over American Peyton Stearns, Vekic turned the tables, asking her own question to the assembled reporters and addressing the elephant in the room.

But even if journalists weren’t keen on asking Vekic about her new locks, it nonetheless earned rave reviews from fans, and even Danielle Collins, when she debuted them on Instagram.

Aryna Sabalenka can’t eat at Yulia Putintseva’s house anymore?

It takes a lot of sacrifices to get to the top of the PIF WTA Rankings, but even more to stay there — and Aryna Sabalenka hopes that one of the things she won’t be forced to give up in her time at the top is Yulia Putintseva’s world-famous cooking.

After beating the Kazakh in three sets at the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open — her first career win against her good friend having lost their only prior meeting in 2019 — Sabalenka said she hoped Putintseva wouldn’t resort to extremes in the hopes of beating her going forward.

“Probably she’s not going to invite me for her really great dinners,” Sabalenka quipped. “She’s really good in cooking. Yeah, it’s tough. She’s making delicious [things]. Probably I’ll never try her stuff again.

“Or she’ll invite me and she’ll poison my meal!”

But when the laughter died down, Sabalenka was sure to get serious, saying that on-court events don’t, in fact, affect off-court friendships.

“[It’s] really good to separate this tennis life and off-court life with my tennis friends,” Sabalenka said. “We’re competitors on court, we are fighting for it, we probably behave not really in the best way, but we understand that. Off court we didn’t bring [in]like, tennis life. That’s really important.”