Tamira Paszek goes about her business the long way round at Wimbledon. And she is the first to draw attention to the fact.
For the third straight year, the Austrian has won through qualifying to make The Championships main draw and for the third straight year she has had to grind her way through a marathon final-round match to do so.
In an unfortunate way to secure her berth this year, the 25-year-old advanced 6-3, 5-7, 10-9 after her Czech opponent, Andrea Hlavackova, retired due to cramping.
“Well there’s so many emotions right now,” Paszek said. “Unfortunately, not really the way we wanted to finish the match so I’m really sorry for Andrea. Third straight year, third one in a three-set drama.
“There were two 7-5s [in the third sets in 2015 and 2014]. Again I’ll let it settle, try to recover and look forward to the main draw.”
In an extraordinary battle of momentum shifts, it was Paszek who looked to be heading for the unfortunate ending.
After missing a match point at 5-4 in the second set, she slipped at the net and injured her ankle, promptly calling a medical timeout.
She returned to have her serve broken and the Czech served out the set 7-5 when Paszek whipped a forehand wide.
Capitalising on the swing in fortunes, it was Hlavackova who raced to a double break for 4-1 in the decider.
It was kind of a crazy game and I'm happy to be through
Paszek, though, with her back to the wall, flattened out a big off-forehand winner and got lucky with a netcord to peg back one of the breaks.
Currently languishing at No.209 in the world, Hlavackova was displaying plenty of the nous at the net which has bagged her two Grand Slam doubles titles and a career-high of No.58 in singles.
After saving seven break points, the Czech held for 5-3 but when serving for the match two games later she wilted in the blustery conditions, spraying a backhand wide to concede the break for 5-5.
Having reeled off three straight games, Paszek again stood at match point, thanks to a double fault from her opponent.
Again the Czech would survive, holding for 6-6 and breaking for the chance to serve it out at 8-7.
A double fault under pressure would haunt Hlavackova once more as she failed to close it out for a second time and with Paszek holding for 9-8, both players received treatment at the change of ends.
With Paszek serving at 9-9 deuce, Hlavackova’s right leg gave way and she screamed in pain as she recoiled on the ground.
After a medical timeout she would return for just one more game.
“I fell in the second set as well. It was kind of a crazy game and of course I’m happy to be through,” Paszek said.
“Yeah, I was down 1-4, a double break. She was hitting hard and moving me all around the court. The only chance for me was to step up my level and go for my shots, which I did and at the end of the second set, just went for it and had better luck in the end.”
In the final women’s qualifying match of the day, last British hope Harriet Dart put up an almighty fight before bowing to Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 2-6, 7-5, 13-11.
