By Sarah Alvanipour

Anna Kournikova’s name has been tossed around this week in Paris. Is she contemplating a comeback a la Martina Hingis? No. She does, however, have a distant cousin, Evgeny Korolev, competing in the men’s singles event and making some noise of his own.

Korolev came from a two-set deficit to defeat Andreas Seppi in the first-round of the French Open, only to run into 2004 winner, Gaston Gaudio in the second round. The 18-year-old from Moscow would eventually surrender to the Argentine after 3 hours, 38 minutes, but not before taking the match to five sets. Korolev narrowly missed a third-round appearance, winning 153 points to Gaudio’s 156.

With a 6-foot-1 frame and a solid forehand, Korolev has the tools to emulate his idol, fellow Russian Marat Safin. Korolev appears to possess the weapons and the good looks to follow in his compatriot’s footsteps.

Korolev has only recently ventured into the realm of Challenger and ATP tour events. In just his first career ATP event at Marseille, he reached the quarterfinals before losing to Sebastian Grojean. And in Barcelona, he took out Carlos Moya in the first-round before conceding this third-round match to Ivo Karlovic in—you guessed it—three tiebreakers. Yes, we were surprised as well.

Korolev’s eventual goal is to reach the Top 10 and though he does not consider clay his best surface, with impressive results like these, it appears to be only a matter of time before he completes that objective.

Maybe he can convince cousin Anna to play a few rounds of mixed doubles?