Few junior Grand Slam debuts end with a fairytale title run, in the way Martina Hingis’s and Laura Robson’s did.
In Clara Burel’s case, her lone prior singles hit-out in a junior Grand Slam ended in a straight-sets dismissal at home in Paris last season.
Her debut gave little indication of the run she was about to embark on some seven months later.
Now the unseeded 16-year-old is through to her first junior Grand Slam singles final after a stunning 2-6 6-1 6-0 upset of top seed Xinyu Wang on Friday.
Burel will square off against No.2 seed Liang En Shuo for the title, after the Chinese Taipei player survived a pair of match points to see off Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 4-6 6-3 7-6(5).
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Playing for a junior Grand Slam title in just her second attempt? Burel will take that any day.
“I can’t describe now my feelings,” she said. “I’m so happy, proud of me.”
It caps a huge improvement from the teenager since her Roland Garros debut in May.
“I think the difference is in the head, mentally stronger,” she said.
Wang had claimed the Asia-Pacific Australian Open wildcard play-off on home turf in Zhuhai, China, in December, and was a heavy favourite to reach the title decider.
She made her Grand Slam main draw debut last week, falling to French former world No.11 Alize Cornet in the opening round.
But the 16-year-old Wang had done it the hard way, fighting through three-set matches in her three prior matches coming into Friday’s semifinal, and called for a medical timeout to have a heavily-strapped upper right leg treated after losing the second set.
Burel, by contrast, had cruised through the draw – barring her third-round match with Sydney-born American Elysia Bolton.
She was the first Frenchwoman to appear in the Australian Open girls’ singles semifinals since current world No.8 Caroline Garcia in 2011.
Now, she will bid to become the first French champion of the event since Virginie Razzano in 1999.
“Yeah, for sure,” she said of emulating Razzano’s victory. “No, I don’t know her, only Caro [Garcia].”
After storming through the opening set, errors began to creep into Wang’s game as she quickly surrendered the second.
She threw a look of despair her support crew’s direction as she fell behind a double break for 0-4 in the deciding set.
Burel continued to absorb her opponent’s huge pace off the ground, and while the top seed survived a first match point, consecutive double faults handed the Frenchwoman her passage through to the final.
“I don’t know [if she had an injury at the end],” Burel said. “I just play my game and go for it and we will see on the court.”
On Show Court 3, Italy’s Cocciaretto pulled out a skipping rope to keep her heart-rate up after taking the opening set 6-4 as second seed Liang took a medical timeout. In the battle of the 17-year-olds, Liang won six straight games for 3-0 in the deciding set before Cocciaretto found another gear to reel off five straight games for 5-3.
Serving for the match at 5-4, the Italian let her first match point slip. She broke again for 6-5 and held a second match point, but again could not close it out as the nerves crept in.
Maintaining her composure, Liang brought up her first match point with a heavy forehand into the corner drawing the error, and she closed out the two-hour, 12-minute battle when Cocciaretto fired wide.
The final will be the first meeting between the giant-killing Burel and big-hitting Liang.