Anne Keothavong caused an upset at the US Open as she made the third round by knocking out 25th seed Francesca Schiavone.
British number one makes third round at Flushing Meadows
Anne Keothavong caused a big upset at the US Open as she made the third round by knocking out 25th seed Francesca Schiavone.
British number one Keothavong came from a break down in the deciding set to win out 6-2 3-6 6-4 against the Italian to book her place in the third round.
The 24-year-old is the world number 87 but she backed up her victory over American qualifier Alexa Glatch in the second round with an even better success.
"Before the match I really believed I had a chance to win," she said.
Hang in
"I knew if I could hang in there and just get stuck in then I'd be in with a chance. I came away with the win so I'm pretty pleased with that.
"Schiavone is ranked a lot higher than me and she's a seeded player and I wanted to go out there and just give it my best shot.
Keothavong broke Schiavone in the very first game of the match in a great start, which resulted in her breaking again in the seventh game en route to a comfortable 6-2 win in the first set.
Schiavone responded though with her first break of serve setting up a second-set win and taking the game into a decider.
Keothavong lost her serve in the fifth game, but a three-game run got the Brit right back on the front foot and her opponent handed her victory when she double-faulted on match point.
Keothavong's performance in New York comes in her first Grand Slam appearance away from Wimbledon, where this year she reached the second round in her best result.
Long year
"For me, it's been a long year, and there have been a few ups and downs, but I'm finally, well, I'm not where I want to be, because I just want to keep climbing up in the rankings," she added.
"But this year, you know, it was quite significant for me to finally break into the top 100."
Next up for the Londoner is a showdown with the fifth seed and recently-crowned Olympic gold medalist, Elena Dementieva.
The Russian brushed aside France's Pauline Parmentier, the world number 49, 6-2 6-1 in just 58 minutes.
