18 months on from almost selling her home to keep the dream alive, Destanee Aiava has won through to the second-round of the Australian Open for the first time in five attempts.
After trailing a set and 2-5, the Melbourne local stormed home in front of a boisterous Australian crowd to defeat Greet Minnen 5-7, 7-5 7-6(5) in a thrilling contest.
Earning her way into the draw via qualifying, Aiava was staring down the barrel of her sixth first-round loss at a Grand Slam.
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Not to be denied, Aiava scratched, clawed, and willed herself on Court 3 to level the scores at 5-5 to give herself a fighting chance.
On the brink of defeat, Aiava elected to "say c'mon [after] every single point" to generate her own momentum.
"I need to do whatever it takes to, yeah, come back." She told the press. "It ended up going 5-5. I just heard the crowd get louder. I tried to use that to my advantage."
By that point, the tide had turned and the home fans smelt blood.
After levelling at a set all, the Australian and the Belgian traded blows until the eighth game of the set when Minnen broke Aiava for a 5-3 lead.
After Minnen squandered her chance to serve it out, Aiava returned the favour at 6-5 as her first serve deserted her.
Ultimately for Aiava, her heavy groundstrokes and adoring crowd proved too strong on her second match point as Minnen couldn’t return a thundering inside-in Aiava backhand in the match tiebreak.
For Aiava, who is already predicted to rise to No.170 in the world, this week marks a huge milestone for someone who deals with mental health challenges, online trolls and financial distress as a young woman.
While you’d forgive Aiava if she said her relationship with tennis had become loveless, she’s instead gone the other way to focus on the positives of what tennis has given her.
"I can get into a negative headspace," Aiava admitted.
"I think I had to really step back and appreciate things that tennis has given me and not look at it as something so negative.
"I think just looking back each week, just feeling a lot of gratitude for everything that tennis has given me.
"I'm here playing my favourite Grand Slam, in the second-round. I can only be thankful and grateful that I get to do this as a job. I'm not turning up to do something that I hate, even though I do hate it sometimes."
Financially, the guaranteed A$200,000 pay cheque eases the burden of life off-broadway on the WTA Tour.
"It means that I can bring someone to travel with this year, and I can afford to actually go to all the tournaments that I want to," Aiava shared.
"I struggle travelling on my own. The fact that I get to bring my fiancé with me and hopefully one of my family members…it makes a world of a difference."
Aiava will face American 10th seed Danielle Collins in the next round.
Earlier on John Cain Arena, Maya Joint, also a recipient of a Tennis Australia wildcard, was bundled out of the Australian Open at the hands of US Open finalist Jessica Pegula.
Soundly beaten in a one-sided affair 3-6, 0-6, Joint was overpowered and outclassed by the seventh-seeded American who arrived at Melbourne Park in good form after collecting some silverware in Adelaide as a runner-up to compatriot Madison Keys.
For Joint, her swift exit from Melbourne Park is, while not unexpected such was the strength of her opponent, a disappointing end to a great summer.
The American-born Australian sits on the brink of the world's top-100 with her ranking at No.105 following a semi-final run at the Hobart International and a competitive second-round loss in Brisbane at the hands of Victoria Azarenka.
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