Indian starlet Sania Mirza said on Wednesday it was time to turn over a new page in her young career and get down to the business of winning matches. The 18-year-old from Hyderabad has rocketed to fame in her homeland and made a name for herself on the WTA international circuit with her exploits in the last 12 months.
In that time her world ranking has moved up the fastest on anyone on the tour charging from 326nd to 42nd going into Flushing Meadows.
Her story has made headlines world-wide as a potential role model for Moslem women - a devout believer, but someone who sports a diamond-studded nose ring, wears mini skirts and oozes star-in-the making potential.
Her courageous 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 win over Italy's Maria Elena Camerin put her into the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the second time this year after her loss to Serena Williams in the Australian Open.
With her next opponent, Marion Bartoli of France, ranked alongside her, she knows that she had every chance of winning through to a glamour fourth round tie against another 18-year-old, top seed Maria Sharapova of Russia.
But Mirza said that she had learned that it was all about taking one match at a time.
"I do know who I play if I beat Bartoli, but I'm not looking at that yet," she said. "US Open or not, you take it one match at a time. You can't just jump ahead."
And if not tempted to look ahead, neither does she want to look back, saying that she wants to put aside all the hype surrounding her arrival as India's first world-ranked female tennis player and let her tennis doing the talking.
Asked once again about her wearing of a T-shirt at Wimbledon emblazoned with the words: "Well-behaved women rarely make history", Mirza rolled her eyes in supplication.
"I'm tired of answering that question. I wear a lot of T-shirts that say a lot of things," she said.
"I don't think you should take a lot of things seriously that I wear. It's just a T-shirt.
"I'm not making a statement. I'm not doing anything. I can say what I want to. I think I like to be 18 sometimes and I just like to wear some fun T-shirts once in a while."
But while her unique situation has its drawbacks, Mirza readily admits that it also has its advantages.
Wherever she goes she gets huge support from the local Indian community and her two three sets matches here against Camerin and in the first round against Mashona Washington have been no exceptions.
It can be a source of distraction for her opponents, many of whom only experience such an atmosphere only when they draw one of the top players, but for Mirza it's an inspiration.
"I think I am very lucky to be an Indian considering we have Indians everywhere we go," she said.
"We're just so many of us. I guess you can't miss them anywhere."