Britain’s Katie Swan overcomes cramp to reach Australian Open girls’ final

Britain’s Katie Swan produced a brilliant fightback to book her place in the final of the girls’ singles at the Australian Open. Swan was badly hampered by cramp in the third set but saved three match points on her way to winning a rollercoaster match against the fifth seed, Dalma Galfi, the 15-year-old eventually securing a 0-6, 7-6, (7-5), 7-5 win in two hours and 36 minutes.

Annabel Croft was the last British winner of the girls’ title in 1984, while Laura Robson reached the final in 2009 and 2010 after winning the junior title at Wimbledon in 2008.

Bristol-born Swan, who is now based in Kansas, looked to be heading out of the competition after losing the opening set in only 21 minutes and falling 4-2 behind in the second. However, having beaten the top seed, Xu Shilin, in the third round, Swan was determined not to waste her chance of claiming a junior grand slam title and fought back to eventually win the set on a tie-break 7-5 after 78 minutes.

Galfi was given a warning for racket abuse as Swan, seeded 14th, raced into a 4-2 lead in the decider, but the Hungarian regained her composure and won three games in a row to serve for the match at 5-4. Swan saved three match points and won the next two games as well to secure her place in the final, which will be played on the 15,000-capacity Rod Laver Arena, against Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova.

“I can’t believe I’m going to get that opportunity,” Swan said. “I’m really excited and hopefully the nerves won’t affect my game too much. I’m just going to really enjoy it and hopefully win tomorrow.”

Reflecting on her semi-final she said: “It was an amazing match, it was so tough but I am so happy that I managed to get through it. I went down pretty fast in the first set and had to stay strong mentally and fight for every point. In the third set I was cramping but I managed to get ahead because I think she was getting frustrated.

“I felt my whole leg wanted to collapse. I think I went to the ground at one stage. I had to try to not think about it and keep going. I was struggling with moving but took some salt straight away and that helped and I stayed really strong mentally. I knew that is one of my strengths but today proved that.”