After qualifying for her first Grand Slam main draw at the US Open in 2008, all eyes were on 16-year-old debutante Kristie Ahn, as she gave then-world No. 7 and French Open finalist Dinara Safina all she could handle inside the old Louis Armstrong Stadium before losing in two tight sets.
But when she went back to school the next day, she said, it was business as usual: "One kid high-fived me under the desk, (whispering) 'Good job!' and I was like, (whispering) 'Thanks!' and no one in my class knew."
Eleven years later, there were just a few more people cheering her on to her first Grand Slam victory.
Under the lights Tuesday night on Court 5 and in front of a packed house of US Open faithfuls, the 27-year-old Stanford graduate won her first-ever Slam match—over a former US Open champion, no less—by beating Svetlana Kuznetsova, 7-5, 6-2.
It's been a long road back to the grandest Slam for Ahn, who was born in New York and raised in New Jersey: she hadn't featured in an Open main draw since 2008, losing in qualifying in four other attempts, and was candid about her decade-long journey after the match.
"It's funny because, when I was 16, I was like, 'Oh yeah, I'll be here next year again.' And when I was 17, I was so burned out. I got a wild card into qualies, and I didn't even want to play... I consider my eras, like, pre-college and post-college," Ahn said.
"At some point, you're like, 'Ah, I don't think it's going to happen again. It's a change. When you're a teenager, you're like, 'It's going to happen, it's going to happen,' and then when you reach 20, you're like, 'I don't think it's going to happen;' 21, 'Oh, it's not happening;' 22, 'Oh wow, it's really not happening.'
"Going through qualifying is grueling. I lost to [Elise] Mertens in the last round of qualies [in 2016], and then she went Top 20 in the world, and you're like, 'Wow, is that just really bad luck? Or did I just not take a chance, or opportunities?' All these questions start looming above your head. So now, it's all tucked away, and it's like, good riddance."
Currently ranked world No. 141, Ahn was the winner of the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge, which awards a spot in the main draw to the American who accumulates the most points at select tournaments by virtue of her summer hard-court results.
Ahn finished just ahead of another former collegiate standout, Francesca Di Lorenzo, in the standings—though the former Ohio State star nonetheless received a wild card, anyway, and also won her first-round match on Tuesday.
"It always does feel really good, because I earned it. There were just so many candidates for wild cards. I'm really happy that Francesca got one, because she obviously did really well and it was between us when she played Kiki Bertens [in Toronto]. Everyone was like, 'Oh, are you going to watch that match?' And I'm like, 'No, I want her to do well. If she can beat a Top-10 player, she deserves the wild card,'" Ahn said.
"I would have just had to put my faith in the USTA, and if not, I would've tried to go through qualifying. I feel like I'm approaching things much more healthily than, 'Why not me?' It feels really good because I can look back and see that it's not just one match. I played a good San Jose... and it's been a really good summer for me."
Ahn reached the quarterfinals of the US Open Series event in San Jose, a WTA Premier-level event that had Top-10 stars Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka as well as Venus Williams in the draw, after successfully navigating her way through the qualifying there, and also scored a victory over former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko on clay this year.
"In the past couple of years, I've kind of struggled with the feeling of belonging, even though I went 7-6 [in the third] with [Julia] Goerges, I beat [2011 US Open champion] Sam [Stosur], but it's still... I felt something was lacking and kind of like I was fortunate to be there—a 'this won't last' type of thing. This year, I'm stacking my little wins, even though I lose matches, so now, when I go out there, I didn't feel nervous. I just go out there and enjoy it," she said.
"I've been working a lot with my coach this year of just taking little wins and building that self-confidence. In those moments, high-pressure situations, just being able to look back and fall back on what I've been able to accomplish... I've had some ups and downs, but since Wimbledon, I've really been able to encapsulate everything together. It's like a package now."
Ahn's summer surge started long before arriving in North America. In July, the New Jerseyan broke a major duck: she won three matches to make the main draw at Wimbledon, her first time navigating through a Slam qualifying draw since her teenage dream in Flushing Meadows.
"It's funny because [Safina] reached out to me, and was like, 'Oh, do you remember when we played?' and I was like, 'Do I remember? Do you remember?'... My life has come full circle. I feel like I can finally put the 2008 US Open to rest. May it rest in peace," Ahn joked.
"I feel like, since then, I've been comparing myself: when I was 16, I qualified, when I was 16, I qualified, and... that's why Wimbledon was, for me, absolutely massive. I finally qualified [for a Grand Slam] again, and I no longer have to compare... It's not that looming skeleton in my closet anymore. I feel like I can play free, and I think that I have."
With the door open, opportunity knocks next: after Russian Anna Kalinskaya knocked out former US Open champion and No. 11 seed Sloane Stephens under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium to win her first Slam match, the two qualifiers will square off for a spot in the third round.
But Ahn, who also revealed that she was set to quit the sport two years ago and join the workforce with her Stanford degree, isn't looking too far ahead. Instead, she's just enjoying the ride.
“I made a deal with my parents. They kind of helped me from 2014 to 2017 financially, and my dad, literally, I swear, had a calendar countdown, saying, ‘We’re almost there. It’s almost the end of 2017. Get ready to look for jobs. Do you have a résumé ready?’ Now, my dad’s worried," she said with a smile.
“My dad was like, ‘So, this is a bit of a problem. How are you gonna get into corporate America if you keep winning?’ He’s very keen on me hanging up the racquet and getting a 9-to-5 job, but I’m gonna try and milk this as long as I can.”
