British number one Anne Keothavong will return home from her surprise run to the US Open third round confident that she can compete with the best – and close in on a place in the world's top 50.
The 24-year-old Londoner, ranked 87th at present, was making her US Open debut in New York this week, and she became the first British woman to reach the championship's third stage since Sara Gomer and Jo Durie in 1991 when she knocked out 25th seed
Francseca Schiavone of Italy in the second round on Wednesday.
Olympic champion and fifth seed Elena Dementieva proved a tougher opponent last night and Keothavong's bid to match Durie's run to the fourth round 17 years ago was denied by the Russian who won 6-3 6-4.
The Briton, though, made Dementieva work extremely hard for her victory and although she was naturally disappointed in defeat there were plenty of plus points to take from her week at the US Open.
"It would have been nice to have caused her a few more problems," Keothavong said.
"I'm obviously disappointed, but I felt that I had opportunities and I just felt I hit too many errors on routine points, routine shots. But I think overall it's been a good week for me."
There were also victories yesterday for Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Jelena Jankovic.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray is preparing for another tough day today as he faces another left-handed serve and volleyer.
World number six Murray resumes his men's singles campaign with a third-round tie against Austria's Jurgen Melzer.
After coming through against world number 38 Michael Llodra in the second round, the British number one faces a player ranked 10 places lower than his last opponent, but Murray is expecting Melzer to pose as many problems as the Frenchman did on Thursday.
Murray said: "He's a tough guy to play against but I'm confident and I look forward to the match."
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