Since winning a tough three-set match in the opening round of qualifying for the 2023 Roland Garros girls' singles event, Alisa Oktiabreva has been repeating the same sentence in her mind.

“I keep saying ‘come on, one more round, let’s do it," she revealed, and the mantra has proved mighty efficient. 

The 14-year-old is now into the semi-finals at the clay court Grand Slam after upsetting American second seed Clervie Ngounoue 7-5 6-1 on Thursday.

“It feels unbelievable," she said. "My feelings right now are impossible to describe, it’s amazing."

Oktiabreva still wears the scars of that opening qualifying round match as she plays with heavy tape on both thighs, but it has become something of a lucky charm.

“My legs are so sore but there are amazing physios here who help me very much," she said. "I’ve been pushing myself to go just one more round since that match.”

She also has a magic line in response to pressure.

“I just try to breathe and relax, don’t think about about it, repeating myself to just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.”

Oktiabreva plays a very fast game of deep, searching groundstrokes, helped by a very good eye and an impressive fighting spirit. She was 5-2 down in the second set, but started to go for every shot and every angle, never looking back.

“I was so angry at myself when I was down in the first set," she said. "I told myself to just play and enjoy [it]. I was like ‘play! You’re here because you want to play and here you get an opportunity to play against such a great player so come on: play and enjoy it!’ I just needed to get the adrenaline going and then my shots get much better.”

She has been living and training in Prague for years now and a lot of this time has been spent on clay, so no wonder she already masters the surface incredibly well.

“Clay is my favorite surface and Roland Garros is my favorite Grand Slam - I was watching it all the time when I was a kid," she said. "I love Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal. And now Alcaraz is amazing.” Even though she picked up a racket for the first time at four years old, Oktiabreva never thought of making a career out of it until a couple of years ago.

“I liked it but I wasn’t really wanting to play professional, I just changed my mind a couple of years ago. Before, it was just my hobby after school, I wasn’t thinking about playing professionally, but last winter I was injured and that’s when I really felt that I couldn’t be without tennis!”

“My parents don’t understand tennis at all"

It is her sister who introduced her to tennis and who traveled with her to Paris.

“My parents don’t understand tennis at all," she laughed. Oktiabreva praises the work she had done on her mental game for the new level she has found here, adding that her confidence is going to be “much bigger” from now on.

Someone whose confidence is already on a high is No. 3 seed Alina Korneeva. The reigning Australian Open girls' champion is playing like a wall at Roland Garros. On Thursday, she beat No. 8 seed Mayu Crossley 6-3 6-3 to reach the semi-finals. “I just play and enjoy my game. I don’t think of what it means to win maybe both here and in Australia, I just think about the next match, it’s the most important.”

She laughs when told she’s a clay specialist now. She knows hard courts are always going to be her favorite but she has proved in Paris that she can adjust and that the work on her footwork since Melbourne is paying off.

Yet, not everything was easy for her against Crossley as she had to work very hard for her points.

“It was such an emotional match," she said. "I wasn’t nervous but more angry and with a lot of energy. It was really emotional from the first point to the last. And it was also difficult because she was moving very well and put a lot of spin too. I had to go to the net to make the difference. It wasn’t frustration, it was more that I wanted to win too much. It happens often with me but I think it’s good because I need this energy to get my legs and shots going.”

Korneeva was 10 when she decided that one day she’ll be a professional tennis player and she hasn’t looked back since.

“I decided that tennis would be my career because I was watching a lot of tennis: a lot of Serena Williams matches," she reveals. "I loved her game, her energy. She was like a god in tennis I loved to see all the emotional games, the emotional moments after the wins at Grand Slams.”

Nowadays she finds inspiration through Aryna Sabalenka, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

“I love Sabalenka because she reminds me of Serena, and Pavlyuchenkova because she shows a lot of emotions when she plays.”

She won't be short of emotions in the coming days with the prospect of a second straight junior Grand Slam title at stake.