The young Russian tennis star continues to amaze the world. Alina Korneeva, who has not yet turned 17, won her second Grand Slam tournament this year. Of course, her for now, junior, but it’s only a matter of time. In the final of the Australian Open, she beat her friend Mirra Andreeva, who made a lot of noise in the adult competitions in Paris. Which proves once again that the road to victory over the strongest tennis players in the world is sometimes very fast.
This time, Korneeva’s rival was the Peruvian Lusiana Pérez-Alarcón, a girl who first left Roland Garros without a purely Russian semifinal, and then without a final, defeating Alevtina Ibragimova and Anastasia Guryev in turn. Alina coped with psychological pressure and takes the main trophy from the French capital. Who is she, the young conqueror of Melbourne and Paris? It’s time to talk about it in more detail.
Photo Source: Getty Images
Won “Grand Slam”
As befits any final, the match was complicated. In the first set, both tennis players were even, but thanks to a colossal stamina and distance play, added to powerful shots, she managed to snatch the seventh game and lead the second set.
Despite the intercepted lead, it proved much more difficult to repeat the success of the first stint. The Peruvian throughout the set tried to wear down her opponent, forcing her to “train” all over the court. There were also mistakes, our athlete hitting the ball into the net several times in an attempt to attack with heavy shots as opposed to Lussiana’s long shots.
For a certain period, Korneeva even managed to develop a two-game lead, but the opponent did not want to give up the title so easily. However, in the end, Alina still managed to collect her thoughts and win in the last and decisive game. As a result, a working and pleasantly surprising victory for a young tennis player. Now we can say with confidence: there is no need to worry about the future generation of Russian tennis!
Photo source: Roland Garros
sports genes
Alina is the daughter of the famous Russian volleyball player Alexander Korneev, winner of the Beijing Olympics. A happy event in the Korneev family happened a year before her father’s main success in his professional career. Alexander still remembers that day with a smile. “We played against Cuba in the World League. And I really failed that match. I literally have nothing. And I simply could not think about anything else, except that my daughter was born, ”Korneev later said.
At the age of four, her parents sent Alina to the Spartak sports school. And very soon the girl’s father ended his playing career and began to closely follow the career growth of the future champion.
Photo source: social networks of Alina Korneeva.
Korneeva’s rise began two years ago, winning her first international junior tournaments and reaching the final of the European Girls Under 14 Championship, where she lost to Czech Tereza Valentova. And in the next season, she Alina has already firmly broken into the elite of world youth tennis.
Role models
Korneeva herself calls her favorite tennis player Serena Williams. But those around her jokingly called her a mini-Sharapova. And the main example of those who had to deal with a relatively close distance can be Elena Rybakina. She had already achieved her first successes, studying at the same Spartak school, when little Alina was just beginning to master the wisdom of tennis.
Now Rybakina is one of the leaders in the WTA world ranking. And Alina may well follow in her footsteps. And after Korneeva managed to meet and talk with Rafael Nadal himself, she, in her own words, for a long time could not recover from the happiness that seized her.
Photo source: social networks of Alina Korneeva.
Future perspectives
So far, Korneeva’s titles at the junior level have been split between clay-court and hard-court victories. At the same time, Alina emphasizes that she does not really like clay courts and she prefers to play on grass. Wimbledon is ahead, and this is a great opportunity to confirm the veracity of her words; after all, so far the girl’s record says otherwise. And at the same time, she will be one step away from winning the “Grand Slam”, even though she is a junior at the moment.
The temptation to quickly settle in adult competitions is great, and the example of her best friend is before her eyes, but still it would be better for Alina to take her time and try to go down in history among her peers, and then storm the main peaks. of world tennis. With such rapid progress and incredible perseverance, they will not go anywhere from Korneeva.
