Destanee Aiava, 2017 French Open
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Destanee Aiava, the 17-year-old tennis player from Melbourne, will participate in the qualifying round of the forthcoming 2017 French Open. The second-youngest player in WTA's Top-200, World No. 176 Aiava was a victim of her own success on Saturday when she was eliminated from Tennis Australia's French Open wildcard playoff round after reaching the semi-finals at Saint Gaudens.

Jaimee Fourlis and Isabelle Wallace will now square off in Sunday's playoff decider to book a berth in the wildcard playoff round. Aiava, known for her strong baseline game, was announced on the list of Tennis Australia's seven-player playoff, but her progress at Saint Gaudens hampered those plans. Aiava has excelled on clay-court surfaces in her young career and is expected to make noise at Roland Garross in the coming years.

Fourlis, another 17-year-old from Melbourne, won the Australian Open wildcard playoff in December and is confident about repeating that feat in Paris. “It was a little bit (hard to stay focused against an injured opponent, Arina Rodionva) but I kind of just kept it to myself and was thinking about what I had to do throughout the match and it didn’t really bother me,” Fourlis said, via The Herald Sun.

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“I’m really pumped, really excited. (I) can’t wait (for the final). Definitely I think having the experience of playing the wildcard playoff in December. And of course winning that will give me a lot of confidence going into tomorrow, so I can’t wait," the teenager added.

Wallace, a Scottish-born Australian, has won 20 of her 26 matches in 2017 including two ITF claycourt titles in Mallorca. “I think my game suits (clay),” she said. “I play left-handed with a lot of shape and not too flat or low over the net. So I think it really suits my game and I’ve had a really good start to the year as well. I thought I played really good. I thought I stuck with my game plan and my tactics. I got a bit nervous at the end but then I pulled through. Again got back to my game and got through.”

Earlier this year, 16-year-old Destanee Aiava became the first player born in the 2000s to win a main draw match at an elite WTA event when she defeated veteran American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the first-round of the Brisbane International. Several analysts expect her to be top-flight player in a few years.