She comes from a country of just over 600,000 inhabitants, but the world's eyes are assured to be on Montenegro's Danka Kovinic on Monday night: She's Serena Williams' Round 1 opponent at the 2022 US Open.
Learn more about Kovinic, who's the first player from an independent Montenegro to win a Grand Slam match:
She's a history-maker for her country
Since Montenegro's independence was restored in 2006, Kovinic, 27, has been its standard-bearer. Hailing from Cetinje, the country's honorary capital in recognition its status as capital from 1696 to 1918, Kovinic is one of just two players from the country currently with a WTA ranking. (The other is ranked No. 984.)
As a teenager in 2013, Kovinic became the first Montenegrin to reach the quarterfinals at a WTA tournament, and in 2015, a tour-level final. That same year, Kovinic won her first WTA doubles title with Stephanie Vogt from Liechtenstein in a win for two comparatively smaller tennis nations.
She's in fact reached three WTA singles finals, but so far, has yet to win a title. What she has done, though, is represent her country at the pinnacle of international sport: In 2016, she was one of 35 Montenegrin athletes in seven sports who qualified to compete at the Rio Olympics.
This year's been her best at Grand Slams
Kovinic's meeting with Williams under the lights won't be the first time she's played a big name on a big court at a Grand Slam tournament in 2022.
In fact, she's had her best career results at majors this year: She reached Round 3 at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros for the first time.
In Melbourne, she defeated reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu in a night match inside Margaret Court Arena, and gave eventual champion Iga Swiatek a tough test in Paris on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
After beating Raducanu at the year's first Grand Slam tournament, Kovinic took a moment to reflect on what it's like to be a trailblazer.
"I'm very proud to be here and to represent Montenegro as the only player in WTA or ATP on tour," she said.
"I'm making these results and making history in tennis for Montenegro. It's a huge thing for me and hopefully there will be many more kids, boys and girls, following my path in the future, which I really hope, and I will try to help them out to reach my level and to be even better than I am today."
Accounting for both qualifying and the main draw, she's playing in her 10th US Open. She reached Round 2 in 2015 and 2020.
Though her ranking's slipped, she peaked in the Top 50
Currently ranked No. 80, Kovinic hit a career-best of No. 46 six years ago. After a promising start, her 2022 season was derailed somewhat by injury: She was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon with a low back problem, and hasn't won a match since Roland Garros.
But after losing at the WTA hard-court event in Granby, Canada, earlier this week, Kovinic proclaimed herself healthy and well: "Despite the lost [sic], the back feels better," she wrote on Twitter. "Finally on the right path to put this injury behind [me], get into [the] fighting zone and focus on what’s next!"
She's beaten a few big names before
Kovinic boasts three career wins against Top 10 players, including a 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Karolina Pliskova this year in Indian Wells. Last spring, en route to the final of the WTA 500 event in Charleston, S.C., she defeated Leylah Fernandez, Petra Kvitova and Ons Jabeur, among others.
She's looking to break one of Serena's all-time streaks
Kovinic is seeking to do something that no player's ever done: beat Williams in Round 1 of the US Open. Williams is 20-0 in her opening match in New York, and has won 18 of those matches in straight sets.
In a pre-tournament interview with the Associated Press on Friday, Kovinic said it's an honor to face Williams in what could be one of final matches of the American's legendary career.
"It's a privilege to share the court with Serena," Kovinic said. "I just really hope that I can show my good game. Maybe my best game."
