Watch: Venus Williams trains with promising American Clervie Ngounoue before 17-year-old's Indian Wells 2024 1R qualifier win

Promising teen Clervie Ngounoue traded hits with Venus Williams, who is one of her idols. This came ahead of her first qualifying round victory over French veteran Alize Cornet at the 2024 BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday (March 5).

Ngounoue, 17, came on the tennis universe's radar in 2023 when she became the girls' World No. 1 in June. The World No. 386 has only gone from strength to strength since then; she made her Grand Slam debut at last year's US Open, before winning her maiden pro title in singles at the ITF W35 Naples event in January this year.

Clervie Ngounoue had the opportunity to practice with seven-time Major winner Venus Williams earlier on Tuesday. In a video posted by the social media handle of the Mubadala Citi DC Open, the American was polishing her net skills as Williams swiped through the ball from the baseline.

The young phenom arrived at the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells with an 8-3 win/loss record in competitive matches. Since she is ranked outside the WTA top 300, she had to enter the qualifiers for a potential main draw entry.

The 17-year-old seemingly benefited from her practice with Venus Williams as she exceeded expectations during her first match at the Palm Springs event. She downed former World No. 11 Alize Cornet 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the second qualifying round.

She will next face her more experienced compatriot Taylor Townsend for only her second-ever main draw appearance at a big tournament. Since the two players have never met either on the WTA Tour or the ITF circuit, their head-to-head record stands at 0-0.

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"Serena and Venus Williams were my inspiration, my motivation" - Clervie Ngounoue

Clervie Ngounoue, meanwhile, previously attributed her juniors' success to Venus and Serena Williams. She also disclosed that she had put up the Williams sisters' pictures on her bedroom wall.

"Serena and Venus Williams were my inspiration, my motivation," Clervie Ngounoue told ITF last June. "I wanted to plaster their pictures on my wall all the time, and those are the people I wanted to follow in the footsteps of."

The 17-year-old is as humble as they come, stating that "a lot of answered prayers" got her to where she is.

"I’m so blessed to be here. It’s a lot of answered prayers that I’m living in right now," she said. "It’s easy to forget sometimes because you just get carried away but I’m trying really hard to be grateful for everything I’m going through."