Mirra Andreeva, Alina Korneeva and Brenda Fruhvirtova are three youngsters lighting up Australian Open 2024.
Andreeva and Korneeva are names familiar to many who followed last year’s tournament; the duo battled it out in a dramatic girls’ singles final, won by Korneeva after three hours and 18 minutes on court.
DRAW: Australian Open 2024 women's singles
The name Fruhvirtova might be familiar too; Brenda’s older sister Linda stormed to the fourth round at AO 2023 – her best career result at a major tournament.
Brenda, meanwhile, scored her first Grand Slam main-draw victory with a three-set win over Ana Bogdan. So too did Korneeva, who upset Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo to progress.
Along with Andreeva, they represent the first trio of 16-year-olds to reach the second round at Melbourne Park in the same year since Australian Open 2005.
At that tournament 19 years ago, it was 16-year-olds Nicole Vaidisova, Michaella Krajicek and Tatiana Golovin winning their first-round singles matches.
Vaidisova went on to reach the third round that year before being stopped by No.1 seed Lindsay Davenport.
Of this year’s trio, Andreeva stands tallest.
Unlike Korneeva and Fruhvirtova, who came through the qualifying rounds, Andreeva earned direct entry thanks to her then-world ranking of No.56.
She has since cracked the top 50 after a run to the Brisbane International quarterfinals.
Andreeva’s exponential rise in 2023 – she began the season ranked just inside the top 300 – was helped by several breakthrough results at big tournaments.
This included the Grand Slams, where she reached the third round at Roland Garros and last 16 at Wimbledon, before a first-round win at the US Open.
By reaching the second round at AO 2024, Andreeva has won at least one match at all four majors, joining Vaidisova, Tamira Paszek and Coco Gauff as the only players this century to do so before turning 17.
Just 14 players have achieved this feat in the Open Era, a select group including Steffi Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Martina Hingis and Serena Williams.