Andreeva keeps Kasatkina s wristband as reminder of French Open win

PARIS - Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva will hang on to the sweat-soaked wristband that Australias Daria Kasatkina jokingly threw towards her at the net as a souvenir of their entertaining French Open clash on Monday.

The prodigious 18-year-old underlined her credentials as a Roland Garros title contender by outwitting her frequent practice partner and 17th seed Kasatkina 6-3 7-5 to storm into the quarter-finals for a second straight year.

Last years semi-finalist approached the net to shake the hand of the Russian-born Kasatkina after the match and was met with a soggy wristband flying in her direction instead.

Shes a great person and a great player. I had a feeling that after the match shes going to do something like this, and I knew that if I would lose I would also do something funny, sixth seed Andreeva told reporters.

When she threw her wristband at me, it was funny. It was a nice gesture from her.

After that, we exchanged kind words, and she told me congratulations. Of course, I said it was a good match. I kept the wristband so its going to be in my bag for now.

Andreeva joked in her on-court interview that she practised with Kasatkina only because she hated her and later said that a changed mindset helped her avenge a three-set defeat by the 28-year-old in the Ningbo final last year.

When I first played Dasha, it was much more difficult for me to stay focused and not to be nice on the court, she said.

Compared to the last match, today I knew that shes going to want to beat me on the court. I dont know what changed, but today was not that hard to change my mindset and step on court and be opponents.

I dont know how, but