The shadow of Arthur Ashe Stadium loomed over her shoulder, while Mirjana Lucic-Baroni's flickering U.S. Open dream was fading before her eyes.
Facing Sofia Shapatava in Friday's final round of qualifying on Court 11, the former Wimbledon semifinalist dumped her ninth double fault, then dropped serve for the sixth time. Shapatava built a 5-2 lead in the decider, eventually moving within two points of her first U.S. Open main-draw appearance.
Then the world No. 192 blinked and her shots sputtered. Lucic-Baroni, eyes concealed behind a pair of sunglasses, never lost sight of opportunity. The 32-year-old veteran reeled off five straight games, rallying past her increasingly twitchy opponent, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, to surge into the U.S. Open main draw for the sixth straight year.
Serving for the match at 5-2, Shapatava sailed her shots, gifting the break. She was a couple of points from victory at 15-30, but could not close. Lucic-Baroni blitzed a serve down the middle and followed with an inside-out forehand winner for 4-5. She won eight of the next nine points as Shapatava completely collapsed and could not find the court. When it was over, Lucic-Baroni dropped to her knees in joyful relief.
Lucic-Baroni has been around so long, when she won the U.S. Open junior crown in 1996 at age 14, Arthur Ashe Stadium didn't yet exist. The 119th-ranked Croatian, who lives in Florida, has not won a WTA main-draw match since she beat Bojana Jovanovski to reach the round of 16 in Strasbourg last May, but her mere presence in the Flushing Meadows main draw is the latest chapter in a comeback story of a player once regarded as a teenage phenom.