Destanee Aiava of Australia hits a return during her women's singles match against Simona Halep of Romania at the Melbourne Summer Set tennis tournament in Melbourne. 5 January 2024 Photo: AFP / William West
Destanee Aiava created history in the past week when she became the first player with Pacific Island heritage to play at the US Open.
The event is one of the worl's major tennis event.
She is of Samoan heritage and lives with her family in Australia.
But the 24-year-old was not able to continue her qualifier performances, losing her first round match to world number four Elena Rybakina, 6-1, 7-6.
In the qualifiers, she powered through three matches of straight-set victories against Gergana Topalova, fourth seed Mai Hontama and former top 20 player Ana Konjuh in the main draw qualifying in New York to secure her spot.
Aiava, who was seeded 194 at the event, wasn't able to hold off the pressure presented by the 2022 Wimbledon champion.
The US Open website said Rybakina began the match with an ace and, 26 minutes later, won the first set, 6-1, over Aiava, who was making her US Open debut.
Rybakina broke the 24-year-old Aussie early in the match to take a 3-1 lead, and broke her again in the sixth game to go up 5-1 and serve out the set.
In the second set in the Grandstand, both players held serve through the first six games, but Rybakina took a 4-3 lead when Aiava sent a forehand into the net.
Aiava broke back in the very next game to tie it at 4-all. The most critical game of the match came when Aiava was leading 6-5, which forced Rybakina to hold serve to send the match to a tiebreak.
And yet, just then, Rybakina's first serve started to falter. Six of the points started with a fault, including Rybakina's fourth and fifth double fault of the set deep into that twelfth game. In the end, Rybakina prevailed with a service winner to send it to 6-6.
In the tiebreak, it was all Rybakina, who took a 2-0 lead with a smash volley, went up 3-0 with a forehand winner, earned her fourth point on an Aiava double fault, then took a 5-0 lead with a deep winner before allowing Aiava to score a point. At 6-1, Rybakina clinched match point when Aiava sent a forehand long.
In the end, Rybakina, the ace queen of the 2024 majors, added eight more aces to her total. She also added five double faults.
Personal battles and love for tennis
In an interview with tennis website, thefirstserve, Aiava said she attempted to take her own life on Easter Sunday two years ago.
But after recovering and getting some assistance she has shot back into contention amongst the world's elite players.
While she struggled in the last year at lower-tier tournaments with little money, she finally broke into big time play when she qualified for the US Open as a main draw entrant.
In the process, she has also earned herself $US100,000.
She said wining three matches to qualify was exciting.
"It feels so good winning three rounds of qualifying and I've been in the same situation a couple of times before and always fallen short, but [the third round win] was extra special," Aiava told The First Serve.
"I definitely thought about my past experiences," Aiava admitted. "Even since the first round, I wasn't trying to make it bigger than it was and tried to take it one match at a time.
"My goal was to go out there and enjoy myself because you never know what's going to happen next, [and] obviously it's paid off."
Aiava faced former world No.20 and 2016 US Open quarter-finalist Ana Konjuh in a statement third match win.
"The whole tournament everyone was so great and I feel like every match you're going to play is going to be tough, especially in Grand Slam qualies," she said.
"I got broken first game [against Konjuh] and I was so nervous, but I held it together and got there in the end. I'm so happy."
Aiava is part of a record-breaking six Australians who qualified for the US Open main draw - marking the first time in tournament history that five Aussie women have sealed their passage into the first week through qualifying.
She told thefirstserve that she has learned a lot over the past few years and her past experiences have helped her maintain a level-head.
"For me it's easier because I do have a lot of interests outside of tennis," she said.
"I've already thought about what I would be doing if I stopped right now. Me being on the court at the moment is on my terms and it's what I want to do [while] trying to enjoy it as much as I can.
"It's tough if I lose [the] last round of qualifying or even the first round. I have a different feeling every week. It just depends if I'm winning or losing."
