Laura Robson declared herself "happy and exhausted" after qualifying for the main draw of a grand slam for the first time.
Disappointment for Broady, but Niland and Sorensen advance
Laura Robson declared herself "happy and exhausted" after qualifying for the main draw of a grand slam for the first time at the US Open.
The 17-year-old had to do it the hard way yesterday, playing her second and third-round matches on the same day following the rain that had washed out much of Thursday's schedule.
Robson needed to dig herself out of a major hole just to reach the final round after finding herself 5-2 down in the deciding set against 15-year-old American Taylor Townsend before coming through 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7/0).
Her second match against Ling Zhang of Hong Kong was more straightforward, Robson looking the stronger throughout and clinching a 6-4 6-3 victory on her fifth match point.
It was a sweet moment for the Londoner, who also reached the final qualifying round in 2009 and 2010 only to fall just short.
Morita in first round
Robson, who will face Japan's Ayumi Morita in round one, said: "It was definitely a pretty good day but a very tiring day, I'm a mixture of happy and exhausted.
"In the second match I was so focused on not letting my tiredness get the better of me that I was playing one point at a time. And if you think like that it's impossible to get nervous.
"The first match was very up and down. She came out there with nothing to lose and she was serving and volleying, mixing it up so much, and you don't see a lot of players who do that these days.
"It was very difficult to play against and I always find it difficult to play against other lefties."
Robson felt her previous near misses at Flushing Meadows had helped her, and she added: "In the past two years I said after my third-round matches that I can only learn from those experiences.
"You've always got to think positively so in my third-round match today I just thought, 'I've been in this situation before, I've got nothing to lose, and I'll just go for it'."
Great day for Ireland
There was disappointment, though, for Naomi Broady, who was in the same position as Robson but could not quite manage a second win, going down 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 to seventh seed Stephanie Foretz Gacon after earlier beating Chang Kai-chen 6-4 5-7 6-3.
It was a great day for Irish tennis, with Conor Niland and Louk Sorensen both making it through qualifying, and they were rewarded with plum ties, Niland against world number one Novak Djokovic while Sorensen will face sixth seed Robin Soderling.
Meanwhile, tournament organisers have followed the rest of New York in battening down the hatches in preparation for the expected arrival of Hurricane Irene tomorrow.
Today's scheduled Arthur Ashe Kids' Day has been cancelled while Flushing Meadows will shut at 5pm this evening and will not reopen until the opening day of the tournament on Monday.
