In France, the time has come for decisive matches, not only in the grid of adult tennis players, but also for juniors. In women’s singles, our team has simply fantastic results – three of the four semi-finalists were representatives of Russia.

Of course, Alina Korneeva, the winner of the previous junior Grand Slam, stood out among all the girls. But the breakthrough of her compatriots, who were not even seeded in Paris, was even more inspiring.

The case when you do not have to torture yourself, choosing who to root for. Only the main intrigue remained – will there be a Russian final?

proof of strength

Exit to the semi-finals for the three Russians was very different in terms of emotions. The champion of the Junior Australian Open Alina Korneeva stubbornly, but without unnecessary nerves, outplayed the Japanese Crossley (6:3, 6:3). But her rival in the semi-finals, Alisa Oktyabreva, had a more difficult quarter-final against the second seeded American Ngunue.

In the first game, the opponent even had a set point, but the Russian woman pulled herself together and managed to turn the game around, taking the beginning of the meeting (7:5). In the second segment of the game, the young representative of the United States psychologically sat down and gave up the match without a fight (7:5, 6:1). After the game, Alice frankly admitted:

This is my fulfilled dream. I love soil.

Alisa Oktyabreva / Photo: © Tim Clayton / Corbis / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

If you managed to beat one favorite, then why not do something similar in the game against Korneeva. Oktyabreva’s fans could think so before the start of the first semi-final, but in reality everything turned out differently.

15-year-old Korneeva, although she had a non-ideal first serve (only 44%), acted much more reliably, allowing herself only four unforced errors per match. Her opponent made as many as 18. So the result of the meeting (6:1, 6:1) in favor of the winner of the junior Australian Open-23 is natural.

missed opportunity

Naturally, for the Russian fans the first semi-final was much easier in terms of emotions, since we were guaranteed to get one finalist of the tournament from it. But in another match, our 18-year-old Anastasia Guryeva, who had previously been knocked out of the first round in Paris for two years in a row, met with Perez Alarcon.

Theoretically, instead of a foreign tennis player, another Russian woman, Alevtina Ibragimova, could enter the court, but the Peruvian outplayed her in a tie-break in a difficult three-set duel.

The second semi-final began very encouragingly for the Russians. Already on the second serve of her rival, Nastya made a break and took the lead 2:1. Then she developed her success, maintaining her serve, and in the seventh game she again made a break and went out to serve the set with a score of 5:2.

Anastasia Guryeva / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Then the 18-year-old Peruvian remembered that, in fact, she was the sixth seed of the tournament and was playing against an opponent for whom the semi-final was the first achievement in competitions of this status. Perez Alarcon made a break – 3:5. Then she took her serve, again did not allow Nastya to pick up the game and took the set to a tie-break, where she outplayed the Russian woman – 7:6.

Hope for the Russian final

After such a shocking set, Gurieva did not stop playing, as it could happen with a still inexperienced junior. On the contrary, Nastya immediately took the game on the opponent’s serve and took the lead 2:0. True, it quickly extinguished the positive emotions of the fans, allowing Alarcon to make a break – 2:2.

Then the game calmed down for a while and returned to the classical course: each tennis player took her serve to the score of 4:4. At the most important moment of the second set, Nastya, leading 40:30 on her serve, allowed Alarcon to make a break and take the game.

The Peruvian went to serve for the match, but Nastya again showed an iron character, “mirroring” the character of the previous game – 5:5. If it seemed to someone that now Gurieva would definitely not give up hers, then in vain. Alarcon repeated the break and finished the game the second time – 7:5.

In an extremely hard-fought fight with excellent prospects of reaching the final, the less sophisticated Gurieva gave up the match. A very disappointing result of the second semi-final, which deprived us of a guaranteed victory at the junior Roland Garros.

However, in the final, the favorite will again be Russian Alina Korneeva.