Wimbledon 2018 champion Angelique Kerber managed to battle past world number 82 Johanna Larsson of Sweden - 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 to take the German into the 3rd round of the US Open.
Both players have met three times before with Kerber coming out on top of all three occasions the most recent one being the Miami Masters which Kerber won 6-2, 6-2.
Having won the US Open title in 2016 the German will be hoping to make that tow this year, and she is in the running especially with her scintillating form as of late.
Kerber in control early
It didn't take long for Kerber to brake Larsson's serve with the German coming from 40-15 down to take the game and go 2-1 up.
What is important in tennis is to not let your guard down to give another player hope, with Kerber having only recently won Wimbledon she has a massive target on her back.
Kerber managed to hold serve next game with some intense pressing from Larsson, however, a break point opportunity presented itself for the German to make it 4-1 but after an incredible point Larsson managed to take the score back to deuce and then win the game.
At 4-2 Kerber set up another break point at 30-40 due to the German's incredible shot-making forcing the errors off Larsson's racket, with a down the line backhand winner Kerber took the game to lead and 5-2 and serve it out for the set.
Kerber managed to serve it out to 15 with a spectacular backhand winner that sealed up a comfortable first set, 6-2 to Kerber.
As far as statistics go the unforced errors came to be Larsson's undoing in the first set with the swede racking up 16 of them and also a poor 1st percentage of points won with that only being 45 %.
Larsson evens out the score
The second set seemed to be a replica of the first until the world number 82 Larsson managed to make an incredible comeback from 5-2 down to even out the score at 5-5, it was then a comfortable service game for Larsson to 15 to make the score 6-5.
Larsson was in a very commanding position with the score being 6-5, with three break points to win the set, Kerber did, however, manage to save one of them but this did not stop Larsson from winning the set as she took her opportunity next point to even out the score at 1-1.
Kerber comes out on top
Tennis is a game in which anything can happen and that was exactly was happening here with Larsson seemingly down and out after the first set, she now made Kerber know she wants to fight and win this match.
It was a very close first game with Larsson hanging in there saving all three break points to keep Kerber at bay.
Kerber managed to break early in what was a gruelling game to take the number 4 seed 2-1 up, what was different now compared to the start of the match was the level of tennis both women were displaying.
It seemed keeping serve was hard for both players as Kerber lost her serve to 15 to even out the score to 2-2.
At 3-3 Kerber managed to break Larsson again with some incredible shot-making. It wasn't until 4-4 before Kerber managed to break Larsson after a double fault gifted her the break.
It was now 5-4 with Kerber serving it out this time not letting Larsson back in having previously had tow match points in the second set only to be saved by the Swede, but Kerber showed her championship grit and held out to take the match.
This wasn't the most promising performance we have seen from Kerber with her serve letting her down at just 55 % overall, but she showed some of the quality that won her the Wimbledon title.
She is definitely sending out a message to the other players how far she hopes to go in this year's US Open.