Mirra Andreeva lost the battle for sibling supremacy.

The 17-year-old sensation has enjoyed a stellar year on the WTA Tour, but she went head-to-head with sister Erika at the Wuhan Open – it was the older Andreeva who surprisingly came out on top.

Mirra Andreeva faced her sister on the court at the Wuhan OpenGetty

The two sisters faced off for the first time as professionals in the second round of the tournament on Wednesday

Mirra, 17, is ranked higher than her older sibling and reached the French Open semifinal earlier this year aged just 16 – but she was handed an unexpected lesson on the court as Erika won the match 6-3, 6-1.

While the result might have been seen as a shock – the world number 19 losing to her No.70-ranked sister – Mirra was wary of the challenge ahead of the match.

“It will be like a nightmare to play against her,” she said.

“It will be a pretty weird match. She will know what I do on the court, and I know what she does.”

With her defeat in Wuhan, Mirra missed the opportunity to surpass Gauff for the most matches won at WTA 1000 events in a season before the age of 18.

So far in 2024, she has won 11 matches at 1000 level – equal with the previous record set by Coco Gauff three years ago.

Just one more win would see Andreeva take the record, but she has insisted that there is only one target on her mind moving forward.

“Of course, as every athlete, you want to go higher and higher in the rankings. You want to win more and more matches and tournaments,” she said earlier this week.

“For now I’ve completed my goal that I’ve set for myself till the end of the year. I’m very happy with that.

Andreeva has insisted she has no more targets to hit this yearGetty

“I wish next year I could win more tournaments and go higher in rankings.

“Of course, next year I have a lot of points to defend, so that’s also going to be one of the first times when I [am] probably going to struggle with that maybe mentally, physically.”

All wasn’t lost for the defeated teenager, who also revealed ahead of the match that the two sisters had agreed to split their prize money.

“We decided that we’re going to split the prize money for the second round,” Mirra said.

“Whoever wins goes forward. We’re going to just split the prize money.”

With their clash at the Wuhan Open, the Andreeva sisters became just the third set to face each other in a WTA main draw in the past 10 years.

The last such meeting came in the second round of Lexington 2020, which was the 31st and final instalment of the rivalry between Serena and Venus Williams.

Serena won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and led the final head-to-head record 19-12.

Czech twins Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova also played each other 10 times at professional level, with five wins apiece — but Kristyna won their only match in a main draw 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(7) in the 2019 Birmingham second round.