Ellen Perez's US Open campaign has ended, but only after a thrilling three-set battle in the women's doubles third round.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Perez and American Danielle Collins went down 7-6 (6-4), 5-7, 7-5 to Slovakia's Viktoria Kuzmova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich from Belarus, in a match lasting two hours and 41 minutes.
Ranked 80th in the world, it's still Perez's best result at a grand slam event, having only once previously made it past the first round, at the 2018 Australian Open doubles.
Perez has also made the singles main draw twice before, at the US Open in 2016 and again at this year's Australian Open.
The 23-year-old from Shellharbour had missed out after a loss to Ana Bogdan in the second round of qualifying, but her doubles tournament begin in stunning fashion when they beat sixth seeds Shuai Zhang and Sam Stosur.
Zhang and Stosur won the Australian Open doubles title in January.
They then marched into round three by beating Japan's Shuko Aoyama and Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, however a quarter-final berth proved out of reach.
Ranked No.80 in the world in doubles, next year looms as crucial for Perez, in her bid to break into the top 100 in singles and receive automatic entry in the grand slam tournaments.
At 168 in singles, Perez, who came out of the US College system, claimed a hardcourt title in Kentucky in the lead-up to the US Open.
Perez switches her focus to a $125,000 Challenger Series tournament in Connecticut this week.