Astra Sharma can’t recall being part of a match or in front of a crowd that quite compares.
In the final qualifying showdown to finish on Friday, the last-standing Australian woman threw her hands over her face in disbelief as a packed Court 8 crowd stood to remind her what she had just achieved.
After two hours and 46 minutes, she had saved three match points to withstand a cramping Irina Khromacheva and book her Grand Slam main draw debut.
“No nothing like that [before],” Sharma laughed. “It was an electric atmosphere. I knew obviously she was cramping.
“There was a lot on the line. Just to have that crowd support was really just pushing me through a heap.”
MORE: Women’s singles qualifying results
While a promising junior, the 23-year-old had turned to college tennis in the US to hone her progress.
Initial hopes of becoming a surgeon were soon set aside, and only a month ago Sharma had sounded notice she was on the rise with a surprise run to the Australian Open 2019 Wildcard Playoff final.
Now she will contest her first tour-level match at her home Grand Slam against a fellow Australian, Priscilla Hon.
“To be honest, no expectations now,” she said. “Just really happy to get that win.
“My parents, they were up in the stands, far tucked up in the back, but they were there the whole way.”
The left-handed Khromacheva had let slip three match points in the second-set tie-break and by the deciding match tie-break, was fighting back tears as she desperately shook her hands and right thigh, trying to ward off cramps.
MORE: Australian Open 2019 women’s singles draw
“I think I changed a little bit how I was playing because I didn’t want to give any cheap errors and then she just started going for it which really changed the tone of the match,” Sharma said. “I mean once I got that [second set] I was really confident. I felt really good in the third because I wasn’t tired or anything.”
If not for a fear of water, there is every chance Iga Swiatek would be chasing black lines down swimming pools, aiming to follow in her father’s footsteps as a Polish Olympian.
Instead, the 17-year-old will make her Grand Slam debut at AO2019 after winning her third match in qualifying earlier on Friday.
The daughter of 1988 Olympic rower Tomasz Swiatek, the teenager first dipped her toes in the water before picking up a tennis racquet – and it wasn’t with an oar in hand.
After beating American Danielle Lao 6-1 6-3 to book a main draw berth on Friday, the Pole spoke of how it could all have panned out so differently.
“Actually my father didn’t want me and my sisters to be rowers because tennis you can get more from that sport,” Swiatek said. “He wanted us also to play an individual sport so tennis was the best sport for me because I was afraid of water.
“We also tried swimming but that wasn’t a good idea. Tennis was perfect.”
Swiatek signed off on her junior career with a statement breakthrough in 2018. She became the fourth Polish woman to win junior Wimbledon in July, 13 years after her idol, the recently retired Agnieszka Radwanska.
The teenager, eyes peering beneath a Rafael Nadal cap, explains earnestly the importance of not comparing her progress to her famous compatriot.
“She’s a big inspiration,” Swiatek said. “She’s a perfect example showing the young players from Poland that we can do it so that’s motivating me.
“But everyone asks if I’m the next Aga. She made such great results in her whole career that I still have to wait like 10 years to be the same.”
The Pole has already cast an eye over the main draw to find the vacant qualifier spots.
She could meet former Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova, No.6 seed Elina Svitolina or last Sunday’s Brisbane champion, seventh seed Karolina Pliskova, first up.
“Right now I want more,” she said. “I want to get the new experience to play with someone seeded but also I want to win so the better option might be to get someone who’s not seeded.”
Canadian 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu continued her steamrolling start to 2019 on Friday, winning her 10th match from her past 11.
The fourth seed was coming off her maiden tour final earlier in the week in Auckland, and on Friday, advanced through Grand Slam qualifying for the second time after Wimbledon 2017.
Not that it was the means by which she would have liked to have prevailed.
Czech Tereza Smitkova retired hurt at 6-0 4-1 after visibly struggling with a back injury.
It marked the second time in three matches Andreescu had gone through on a mid-match retirement.
“Even with the first round, all I can say for them is I feel for them really hard because I’ve been in their position many, many times,” Andreescu said. “I knew something was wrong so I just kept my composure.
“I have nothing to lose really. I just want to try to keep my momentum from last week going now through qualies I’m really pleased with everything.”
Czech Karolina Muchova qualified for her second straight Grand Slam with a 6-1 6-1 victory over American Jamie Loeb. Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, on the comeback from a back injury, booked her return to her first Grand Slam main draw since AO2018 with a 6-3 6-4 win over American Jennifer Brady.
Spanish 21-year-old Paula Badosa Gibert will make her Grand Slam main draw debut after surprising Ukrainian ninth seed Marta Kostyuk, 7-6(6) 6-3.
Gibert, the junior Roland Garros champion in 2015, saw off the 17-year-old who had reached the third round at AO2018.
Russian 20-year-old Anna Kainskaya led a trio of her countrywomen from qualifying into the main draw with No.7 seed Veronika Kudermetova and Natalia Vikylyantseva also through.
Swiss No.3 seed Viktorija Goluvic was among a global mix to book their spots on Friday, with Japan’s Misaki Doi, Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure, Frenchwoman Jessika Ponchet, Briton Harriet Dart and American Varvara Lepchenko also advancing.