How UNC tennis star Fiona Crawley turned the US Open in NYC Carolina Blue

Court 13 of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center looked like UNC-NYC Tuesday night.

Dozens of North Carolina fans descended on the small outer court at the U.S. Open to root on a history-making Tar Heel: Senior tennis star Fiona Crawley became the first active UNC women’s player to play in a Grand Slam tournament.

All that was missing was Rameses.

But despite the confidence gained by winning three qualifying matches last week here, the 21-year-old Crawley ran into a much more experienced, powerful opponent in Round 1.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a former world No. 11, jumped out to a big early lead, then erased a second-set deficit to beat Crawley, 6-2, 6-4 and end the NCAA Player of the Year’s great singles run in Queens.

Crawley settled down after a rough start and had a 4-2 lead in the second set, but Pavluchenkova, a 2021 French Open runner-up at Roland Garros, ripped off the last four games to advance.

“I had so much amazing support out there, and it just really hurts to feel like I let everybody down,” Crawley said in a post-match interview, wiping away tears. “I mean, I know I didn’t, but I feel like I did, because I didn’t play my best.”

For Crawley, Tuesday’s match capped a whirlwind week in New York that saw her play in the U.S. Open qualifying tournament and have two of the more dramatic matches you’ll find anywhere. Twice in three matches she needed a final set super-tiebreak to advance, and after her clinching victory Saturday she spent 30 minutes signing autographs and taking photos with her new fans.

She then raced off to Manhattan to collect her ITA National Player of the Year Award following her incredible season at UNC, when she led the Tar Heels to a team national title, and won the NCAA doubles title with partner Carson Tanguilig, with whom she’ll be partnering in the U.S. Open women’s doubles competition, beginning Thursday.

“This whole thing has been absolutely overwhelming in every way, good and bad,” she said Tuesday night.

Against Pavlyuchenkova, Crawley got off to a tentative start, falling behind 3-0, but with the entire UNC tennis coaching staff, led by head coach Brian Kalbas, cheering on she steadied to 3-2 before losing the last three games.

Then in the second set, after yelling to her box “I’m trying to have fun!” she rallied. Using her trademark tenacious defensive skills and showing some offense as well, the 21-year-old grabbed a 4-2 lead and the match looked headed to a decisive third set.

But Pavlyuchenkova steeled herself and broke Crawley’s serve to level the match at 4, and the Tar Heel couldn’t quite recover.

Like many other Division I athletes in non-revenue sports, Crawley did acknowledge the unfairness of not being able to collect the $81,000 in prize money she earned by reaching the main draw of the Open.

“I would never take the money and never risk my eligibility, but I worked my butt off this week and it seems unreal that there are football and basketball players making millions in NIL deals, and I can’t take the money that I worked so hard for,” she said.

Crawley, who said she can’t wait to get back to Franklin Street and her favorite restaurants, was also thinking about the tragedy on campus in Chapel Hill on Monday, when a graduate student shot and killed professor Zijie Yan.

“It’s so horrible,” she said. “I can’t even talk about it, I’m sorry. It’s so, so horrible.”

For now, Crawley will stay in New York and try to keep earning the support of the Carolina faithful.

“Everyone knows I bleed baby blue, and it crushed me I wasn’t allowed to bring my Carolina bag on court today,” Crawley said, alluding to strict Grand Slam rules about logos. “But this was a great experience. I’m going to get better and come back here.”