Victoria Duval is just 17 but has already experienced the terror of being held hostage by gunmen and almost losing her father in the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
On Tuesday, defeating 2011 champion Samantha Stosur in the US Open first round initially felt tame by comparison, the tension of squandering three match points understandably trivial.
The world No.296 claimed a 5-7 6-4 6-4 win over the 11th-seeded Australian, her first grand slam victory.
But it was the back-story, relayed by Duval with the giggly pitch and enthusiasm of a girl yet to abandon her affection for SpongeBob SquarePants, which seduced the Flushing Meadows crowd.
The Duval family escaped the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to the US after Victoria, who had been born in Miami, had a pistol shoved in her face when she was seven and held hostage by a kidnap gang.
But her father, Jean-Maurice, stayed behind to run his medical practice while mother Nadine, a former ballet dancer, built a new life in Atlanta with Victoria and her two brothers.
Jean-Maurice was in Port-au-Prince when the quake struck, killing around 250,000 people.
The family home collapsed on top of him, leaving him with a shattered vertebrae and broken legs, arms and ribs, and a punctured lung.
Jean-Maurice was eventually airlifted to safety and ultimate recovery in the US, a rescue organised by friends and wellwishers in Georgia.
“If it wasn’t for them, my dad definitely wouldn’t be here today. Not everyone just pays $US30,000 ($A33,600) to fly a helicopter to save someone,” said Duval.
Duval is reluctant to discuss the day she and her cousins were held at gunpoint in Haiti where kidnap gangs once ran riot.
“We were held hostage. It’s not a good memory, so I try to forget as much as I could about it. I don’t remember too much of it anymore, which is great,” she said.
Although Jean-Maurice survived the quake, he has needed a series of surgeries which have prevented him resuming his medical career.
Duval is already guaranteed $US53,000 ($A59,000) for making the second round – a windfall which, in the circumstances, is timely.
In Tuesday’s match, Stosur, 12 years older, was cruising to victory when she led by a set and 4-2 in the second.
Duval, roared on a by a packed Louis Armstrong court, missed three match points before taking victory on the fourth.
Next up for Duval is Slovak veteran Daniela Hantuchova for a place in the last 32.