Ellen Perez is preparing to enter unknown waters after booking a place in her first ever Grand Slam semi-final.
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The Shellharbour product and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez survived an epic quarter-final on Wednesday (AEDT) to move into the women's doubles final eight at Flushing Meadows.
In a thrilling three-hour tie, Perez and Melichar-Martinez dropped the opening set to Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens and Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain), but fought back to win 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-4 and keep their 2022 US Open campaign alive.
"I think we were super aggressive, we played on our terms as much as we could," Perez said afterwards.
"Keeping [our] first serve percentage [high] was key and we really just played together, and we fought through the ups and downs."
The no.10 seeds will now prepare to meet the winner of Thursday's quarter-final between Czech pair Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova versus Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos (Mexico).
Looking further ahead, a clash with fellow Aussie Storm Sanders and her American partner Caroline Dolehide could loom on the horizon. Sanders and Dolehide will meet France's Caroline Garcia Kristina Mladenovic in a quarter-final on the other side of the draw on Thursday.
Whoever they face next, it will be a historic moment for Perez, who has never previously reach a major semi-final. The 26-year-old's previous best effort was a quarter-final run alongside Melichar-Martinez at Wimbledon earlier this year.
The world no.26 is full of confidence in her fourth US Open campaign, having beaten her best of a third-round run in 2019.
Perez and Melichar-Martinez have now won eight matches on the trot - and 16 of their past 18 matches - after winning a WTA 250 title in Cleveland ahead of the Open.
"We've had a lot of matches which brings us a lot of confidence, but we don't think about the past, we're just trying to think about one point at a time because that's all you can do, thinking," Melichar-Martinez said.
"We're really happy right now, but in a couple of days, we will try and focus on the next one."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
