16-year-old Alina Korneeva had a successful qualifying campaign at the 2024 Thailand Open in Hua Hin, but she was beaten by Yafan Wang early in the event.
Korneeva first became noticed by the wider tennis community recently at the Australian Open, where she also made it through the qualifiers to actually win her first-round match against Sara Sorribes Tormo 4-6 6-3 6-2.
That win allowed her to become part of a trio of 16-year-olds that made the second round at the Australian Open, which is a pretty great achievement for women's tennis as the future is clearly bright.
Her second-round match against Beatriz Haddad Maia was a loss 1-6 2-6, but she returned at the WTA 250 event in Hua Hin with a solid qualifying campaign.
The first match in the main draw was against experienced veteran Yafan Wang, and the Chinese player was able to win that match. It was a competitive match as the Russians battled, but ultimately, she was beaten in two sets.
The first set was not that great because she struggled with her serve, which obviously gave her opponent plenty of chances to take advantage of her weaker second serve. The 6-2 score kind of proves that well.
The second set was a tiny bit more competitive. Korneeva once again struggled with her serve as Wang jumped out to a 5-2 lead, but she was able to pull back one break.
Ultimately, the experience of the Chinese player proved too much for the Russian to overcome, as Wang won the match 6-2, 6-4. Still, Korneeva a name to look out for for the rest of the year, as she might end up having a similar season to what Mirra Andreeva had last year.
She's already inching closer to the Top 100 as she's currently ranked 134th, and that's only going to get better the more she plays and the more points she earns.
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