IF there is one sportswoman who deserved another moment in the sun, it is Croatia's Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
The 32-year-old qualifier produced a quite sensational performance here yesterday, sending No.2 seed Simona Halep, a pre-tournament favourite, out with a brilliant 7-6, 6-2 triumph.
If that is not startling enough, the way her life was turned upside down by her abusive father, Marinko, who forced Lucic-Baroni to flee Croatia and move to the United States in 1999 - a year before she reached the Wimbledon semi-final only to lose to Steffi Graf in a match she really should have won - is staggering and remarkable in equal measure.
Such an awful situation naturally hampered what was shaping up to be a highly promising tennis career. Indeed, she took herself out of the sport in 2003 and played only two tournaments in the 2004, 2005, and 2006 seasons combined.
Yesterday, though, was a triumph against all the odds and a win no-one would begrudge her.
An emotional Lucic-Baroni said: "It's been really hard. Sorry. After so many years, to be here again, it's incredible. I wanted this so bad. So many times I would get to a place where I could do it. Then I wanted it so bad that I'm kind of burned out.
"I feel like I'm 15. It's crazy. I'm 32, but I don't feel like that. My body is really great. I feel fit. I feel strong in my mind. I still have so much desire. It is the best day of my life."
For Halep, there was only acute disappointment. "I wasn't in a good mood after losing a set from 5-2 and I tried everything I could. I don't know much about her career but she played well and I wish her luck."
Another player who has failed to build on his huge potential is Bernard Tomic and the Australian's miserable year continued last night when the world No.67 was forced to pull out of his second-round match with David Ferrer because of a hip injury.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article