olivia rogowska
Australian teenager Olivia Rogowska has gone agonisingly close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets in grand slam history, losing to world No.1 Dinara Safina in a thrilling US Open first-round match.
Safina fought back from 3-0 and 15-40 down in the deciding set to deny Rogowska 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 in 2hrs 35mins at Flushing Meadows.
In staving off defeat, the Russian avoided becoming the first women's top seed in 41 years of professional tennis to crash out in the first round in New York.
At No.167 world, Melbourne-based Rogowska was also bidding to become the third-lowest-ranked woman ever to defeat a world No.1 – and the first in eight years to knock the top seed out in the opening round at any grand slam event.
Anything but overawed, Rogowska had expressed her immense excitement at the prospect of playing on a centre court for the first time from the moment she drew the temperamental Safina.
Safina has a history of mental meltdowns, having crumbled in all three of her grand slam final appearances, and Rogowska had vowed to apply the blow torch.
But the young wildcard exceeded all expectations at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest arena in tennis with a crowd capacity of 23,763 fans, playing the match of her life and stunning Safina with her remarkable poise and power.
After nervously dropping her opening service game of the match, Rogowska returned serve – literally – to twice break Safina and charge to a 3-2 lead in the first set.
She was unable to sustain her advantage, giving up further breaks to fall behind 5-3 – but refused to lie down.
Troubling Safina with her deep and angled groundstrokes, Rogowska saved a set point before breaking the Russian for a third time in the ninth game.
Rogowska held serve from 0-30 to level at 5-5 and then staved off a further two set points in the 12th game – including one with a huge serve and fearless follow-up forehand winner – to force the tiebreaker.
Safina won the opening two points of the breaker and continued to lead until Rogowska unloaded a "bullet" – as Martina Navratilova called it – of a forehand pass to level at 4-4.
As the tension mounted, Safina dumped a backhand return into the net and then double-faulted, prompting the fist-pumping Rogowska to skip to her courtside chair in delight after snaring the opening set.
The youngster suffered an inevitable letdown in the second set, dropping four games in a row to allow Safina to put the match back on level terms.
But there looked to be no denying Rogowska when Safina coughed up four double-faults in one game to hand Rogowska an early service break and a 2-0 lead in the third set.
Rogowska then showed extraordinary composure to hold from love-40 down, fending off four break points in all, to go up 3-0.
Then she had the top seed facing two more break points at 15-40, but was unable to convert her advantage into what surely would have been an unassailable lead.
Safina drew back to 2-3 when Rogowska double-faulted on game point in the fifth game.
But the Russian returned the favour with her 12th double-fault, giving Rogowska a 4-2 buffer.
Alas, the Australian committed her 11th double-fault to hand Safina the seventh game and the Russian then held for 4-4.
The decisive moment in the match came in the ninth game of the deciding set when, despite gallantly fighting off three break points, Rogowska was unable to save a fourth.
Safina held her nerve – and serve to love – to close out the match with a forehand winner to keep her Open hopes alive.
Meanwhile, adopted Australian Jarmila Groth is out of the US Open after losing her first-round match to China's Shuai Peng. Slovakian-born Groth, who is expected to receive her Australian citizenship in the coming months, lost 6-2 6-3 to the world No.44.
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