Aiava is a striking-enough opponent at the best of times: at 16, she's already as tall, muscular and athletic as many of her fellow players on the WTA tour. What she lacks in spades is experience. In that department, Kuznetsova was more than happy to oblige.

The two-time grand slam champion and world No.9 put an abrupt end to Aiava's warming run in Brisbane, which began with three wins in qualifying before a three-set victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the opening round.

That result made her the first player born this century to win a main-draw match on the WTA tour. A similar slice of history awaits at the Australian Open, in which she has already booked her place.

The hype had been steadily growing about Aiava's trajectory, but reality tends to intervene in most of these cases. In her way was a veteran tour player with lofty goals of her own, who ended up administering a 6-4, 6-3 loss to the rising world No.386.

Aiava was hardly disgraced and there's little doubt she has the game to match her catchy name and intriguing backstory. Born to Samoan parents in Melbourne, the powerful baseliner spurned a family love affair with rugby and combat sports to follow her dream of being a tennis world No.1.

The nerves were clearly on show in what was easily the biggest match of her career to date. She showed her frustration at times and later admitted she found herself rushing through her serves as Kuznetsova poured on the pressure.

"I think my serve wasn't on today," Aiava said. "I think I was rushing a lot. Just those little things that I did wrong. It's pretty scary [playing her]. I think I learnt a lot out of that match."

Her tournament may be finished, but Aiava has learnt a great deal during the past week in and around Pat Rafter Arena. She's crammed more media appearances and interviews into a few days than she had in her entire life.

There will be more to come as she returns to Melbourne for matches at Kooyong and then Melbourne Park. For her, mum and coach Rosie and father and fitness coach Mark, valuable lessons have been learnt.

"[I took] some confidence, maybe, in my game and myself, knowing that I do belong here," Aiava said. "I feel like I'm ready for that challenge now after playing these five matches. I'm looking forward to it."

Kuznetsova, who won the 2004 US Open and the 2009 French Open, looked at Aiava's date of birth and suddenly felt like part of the furniture.

"I said to my coach, 'I have double age as her'," Kuznetsova said. "It's crazy. I used to be the younger one. Now I'm like 'OK, I look back and it's many good memories'.

"But, yeah, it's strange. It's always not really comfortable to play someone you have no idea what to expect. But [coach] Carlos [Martinez] watched some matches. I think she has good potential.

"It's very important what she's gonna be doing next years. Definitely she has lots of power and athleticism in her."

Earlier on Wednesday, second seed Dominika Cibulkova ousted China's Zhang Shuai in their second-round clash, rebounding from a set down to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in just over two hours.

The former Australian Open finalist had been still buzzing from the biggest win of her nine-year career, downing world No.1 Angelique Kerber to claim the year-end WTA Finals crown in Singapore in October.

And men's third seed Kei Nishikori was another who had to dig deep to progress, eventually overhauling American 20-year-old Jared Donaldson 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to move into the quarter-finals.