Tennis
The grand success of the Russian tennis player at Roland Garros. This has not happened for 33 years!
Alina Korneeva is gradually turning into a world tennis star.
The successes of Russian tennis at the famous Roland Garros tournament are impressive. Particularly stands out against the general background of our young athlete Alina Korneeva, who made a weighty application for a stellar future. By winning the final of the French Open junior tournament, she did something that tennis history has not known for 33 years.
Three Russians in the semi-finals
15-year-old Korneeva never ceases to delight Russian fans with resounding successes at prestigious tennis tournaments. The name of our athlete first became known to the general public in January. Then Alina triumphantly won the Australian Open among juniors, beating compatriot Mirra Andreeva in the final. The whole world then flew around the frames of crying Alina, who could not restrain her emotions after that triumph.
At the junior Roland Garros, Alina, along with other Russians, also lit up. Three representatives of our country made it to the semi-finals at once. In addition to Korneeva, Alisa Oktyabreva and Anastasia Guryeva reached the top four. The only representative from another country in the semi-finals was the Peruvian Lussiana Pérez-Alarcon.
Tense finale
It was with the Latin American tennis player that Korneeva met in the main match of the tournament. This time Alina didn’t worry as much as before the final in Australia. She boldly spoke about this in an interview before the game.
– I feel that I will play in the usual final, as if all tournaments are the same. I don’t have the same feeling as in Australia. There I was going through hard times due to injuries, so I didn’t think about the match. Here I can fully concentrate on the game,” Korneeva told the official website of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
However, playing on a clay court was very difficult for the Russian tennis player. The 18-year-old Peruvian imposed a serious fight on Alina in the first set. The battle lasted exactly an hour and ended with the victory of the Russians in a tie-break.
In the second segment, Alina also did not succeed at all. She even gave vent to her emotions and, out of anger, threw the racket so that it almost broke. But still, Korneeva managed to put the squeeze on her rival and take the second “helmet” in a year.
Korneeva became the third Russian woman to win the junior Roland Garros. Before her, this achievement was only achieved by Nadezhda Petrova in 1998 and Daria Kasatkina in 2014. Alina also became the first junior since 1990, who submitted both the Australian Open and the French tournament in the same year. The last one who managed to do this was the Bulgarian athlete Magdalena Maleeva.
Interestingly, the Roland Garros Saturday program began with the victory of another Russian junior, Yaroslav Demin. Together with the Mexican Pacheco Mendez, he won the doubles, sorting out in the final with the Italian duet Lorenzo Shiahbasi and Gabriele Vulpitta.
Ahead, Alina will have another opportunity to please the Russian public with a resounding victory. Together with Japan’s Sara Saito, she will play in the girls’ doubles final.
Source: Sportbox
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