Nearly 24 hours after winning her final-round qualifying match at the 2023 US Open, American Fiona Crawley was still in disbelief.
The 21-year-old, a rising senior at the University of North Carolina and the top-ranked player in NCAA Division I college tennis in the 2022-23 season, arrived at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center this week as one of the longest shots to make the main draw: a wild card into qualifying at No. 731 in the WTA rankings.
But that didn't stop her: Crawley nonetheless won three matches against players ranked well above her to secure her Grand Slam main-draw debut. The US Open, one of the sport's four biggest tournaments, will be just the 12th professional tournament, at any level, that the San Antonio native has ever played.
"I've dreamed about this moment for so long ... since I was 5 years old and old enough to know what the US Open was," Crawley said Sunday in Flushing.
"After the match, when I finished, I definitely was in shock. I've had a day and night to process it, and I'm still definitely in shock. I feel like I won't really digest it until I'm about to serve or return the first point of my first [main-draw] match."
HIGHLIGHTS: Crawley def. Birrell, Qualifying Round 3
By virtue of winning the NCAA individual doubles title with her partner Carson Tanguilig at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. in May, Crawley was assured of a US Open debut, with she and Tanguilig the recipients of the main-draw wild card historically doled out to American collegiate champions. Her singles qualifying wild card was announced nearly three months later—and over three matches, Crawley put on a performance that left no doubt it was well-deserved.
In the first round, she saved two match points in a 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-6(6) win over Hungary's Reka Luca Jani, and followed that up with another thriller in a 10-point match tiebreak—this one 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5) over Jani's compatriot Timea Babos, once the world No. 1 doubles player who boasts a career-high singles ranking of No. 25.
An English and comparative literature major at Chapel Hill—she aspires to be a teacher, she's said—Crawley was tabbed the consensus Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Player of the Year in June, weeks after she led the Tar Heels to their first-ever team championship in school history. As a junior last year, Crawley posted a 47-3 singles record; in three years, she's gone 123-11 in singles and 78-24 in doubles.
But more impressive than Crawley's on-court accolades is the refreshingly candid and honest way she adressed the whirlwind that the last five days have been.
"I went to high school, went to middle school. I, kind of, had a relatively normal life for this extraordinary life that I'm living," she said. "It's definitely given me perspective, and I've had to balance like two almost identities. When I'm here, I feel like one person and then when I am in class ... I feel like a different person. I love both of those people, and I hope I never have to pick one or the other because they're both so important to me.
"There's a part of me that can definitely be a workhorse, be alone, wake up at 6 a.m. every day, train and just eat, sleep, breathe tennis. I know I can do that because I've done that before. But then there's another part of me that loves just messing around with my team, having a good time, and turning a court into a college dual match. I love entertaining.
"After college, for sure, I want to pursue traveling and tennis is a great way to do that. It's something that I love to do and it's something that has been a passion of mine for my whole life. If anything, college has just made that [passion] so much more."
For a few more days, tennis—more specifically, US Open tennis—is Crawley's sole focus thanks not only to her victories, but also to some understanding UNC faculty.
Classes at Chapel Hill began this past Monday, and by the time she made it from Court 6 to the women's locker room at the NTC on Saturday, Crawley was already talking about emailing her professors to tell them she'd be missing some more sessions. (She's already heard back from some, and they've given her a special dispensation for her absence.)
And as she embarks on the next phase of her adventure in Queens, Crawley says it's comforting to know that, as so much is new around her, there's one thing that'll never change.
"I can walk, try to convince people that I feel, that I can act like I belong here," she confessed. "It's like I have imposter syndrome ... but I'm trying to act like I belong. I'm trying to get a spot for where I want to be. But on court, I find it much easier to carry all of that weight.
"When I'm on court, everything goes away. ... It's one of the reasons why I love tennis so much. It's always been there for me and it's made a lot of all my other problems just go away when I'm on court. It's just me, the court and the ball."
Crawley will face 2021 Roland Garros singles finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the former world No. 11, in Round 1 of the main draw on Court 13 on Tuesday.
