Andreas Mies

When Andreas Mies slid across the reddish-brown clay for the first time, he was six years old. That day, his older brother had taken him along to the court of a small tennis club in Niederkassel (North Rhine-Westphalia). Having heard from his big brother that tennis was great fun, Andreas – or Andy, as everyone still calls him today – was keen to find out for himself. And his brother was right.

On foot, rackets in hand, the two of them just had to turn the corner and would reach the tennis court within a couple of minutes. The balls dashed across the net – for Andy it was love at first sight. From now on, he would watch the professionals on TV whenever he could. And in years to come, always in May, he would travel to Düsseldorf to witness the World Team Cup. Just like all the other young tennis fans, Andy would chase the stars to collect dozens of autographs on supersized tennis balls. And he soon realised: he wanted to be down there on the court, too, in front of thousands of spectators, serve the ball – and win.

Following his dream of becoming a tennis professional, Andy spent as much time as possible after school on the court. At the age of nine, he changed clubs and left Niederkassel for TC Rot-Weiß Troisdorf. That’s where the tennis association Tennisverband Mittelrhein (TVM) discovered Andy – and that’s where Andy found his current coach, Dirk Hortian.

From Cologne to the USA

At the age of twelve, he followed his coach to Cologne. Dirk Hortian had already left the tennis association, but Andy wanted to go on training with him. So he travelled from Troisdorf to the Marienburger Sport-Club several times a week. And although he was still a youngster, he already cut his teeth there at men’s tennis.

In 2009, Andy graduated from secondary education. He then moved to the United States, where he was awarded a tennis scholarship programme at Auburn University. While he completed a four-year bachelor’s degree in Business Studies in Alabama, he played for the Auburn Tigers in the US-American College League NCAA in the singles and the doubles – at least during term-time. For the summer breaks, Andy returned to Germany. Here he initially continued to play for Marienburger SC but in 2010 changed to KTHC Stadion Rot-Weiss – the club he is still playing for in the national league to this day.

After he had been awarded his BA and had returned from the States, Andy ventured into professional tennis. On the ITF Future Tour, he won his first titles. In 2013, Andy still competed in both the singles and the doubles – but he was struggling with a major stumbling block: the recurring knee problems that by this time set him back more and more often. In order to reduce the strain, he decided to end his singles career. Instead, he focused more than ever on the doubles – and it proved a success! Thanks to the exceptional training he had received at college and also due to his early decision to specialise exclusively on the doubles, the switch did the trick. Having won ten Futures titles in 2016, Andy won his first ATP Challenger Tour title in May 2017 in Rome.

First title win with Kevin Krawietz

At that time, Andy had not yet played with Kevin Krawietz, but they had already bumped into each other at various tournaments. Once they got talking, they soon found common ground: they were sure that they could be successful doubles players in the long run if they were paired on the court with a permanent partner. So they agreed to meet in August 2017 for a week-long full rehearsal. The Challenger tournament in Meerbusch was going to be the litmus test to see how well they were able to interact on the court – and they ended up winning the tournament.

The unexpected success in Meerbusch catapulted Andy up to 131th place in the ATP doubles rankings. And although another knee injury subsequently forced him to pause for several months, in April 2018 Andy returned to the courts – from then on playing side by side with his permanent doubles partner, Kevin Krawietz.

Together they celebrated several wins on the 2018 ATP Challenger Tour. That summer, Andy and Kevin qualified as a team for the main draw at Wimbledon. It was the first time that the duo played a Grand Slam – and starting as qualifiers they managed to reach the round of the last 16.

ADVERTISEMENT: Wilson is official partner of Andreas Mies.

French Open win and Davis Cup debut

In February 2019, Andy – again with Kevin Krawietz by his side – finally won his first ATP World Tour title at the New York Open. At the beginning of June, they followed this up with a victory at the French Open. As an unseeded team, Andy and Kevin Krawietz beat the French pair Jérémy Chardy and Fabrice Martin in two sets. This French Open win was not only the first title for a German doubles team since the dawn of the Open Era – it was also the first title for a German team since 1937.

In November of that year, Andy rose to 8th place in the ATP doubles rankings and for the first time was classed among the ten best doubles players in the world. In the same month, Andy and Kevin Krawietz for the first time played the ATP Finals – the season-ending championships featuring the top eight doubles teams of the year. Shortly afterwards, on 20 November 2019, Andy had his debut for the German Davis Cup team: Germany beat Argentina 3-0, with Andy and Kevin Krawietz contributing a hard-fought win scoring 6-7, 7-6, 7-6.

Just like he used to do in his early days, Andy still loves watching other tennis professionals’ matches. And he has always remained a tennis fan who enjoys sharing his love for the sport with others. Since September 2019, Andy has been Tennis Ambassador for Special Olympics North Rhine-Westphalia, where he is championing tennis as a sport for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

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