NEW YORK -- Choose your favorite preposterous factoid from one of the biggest upsets in tennis history.
Maybe it's that when No. 188 Julie Coin played No. 1 Ana Ivanovic on Thursday in the second round of the U.S. Open, Coin played the second WTA Tour-level match of her 25-year lifetime. Maybe it's that two weeks ago at a second-tier tournament in the Bronx, Coin lost to 423rd-ranked Kelly Liggin of Ireland.
Maybe it's that two months ago at Wimbledon qualifying after another galling loss from ahead, Coin figured she'd probably give up tennis after 2008 and pursue tennis coaching or something related to her degree in mathematical sciences. Maybe it's that when Coin called her parents at home in France after defeating Ivanovic, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, they'd seen only the third set because French TV hadn't shown the first two.
Maybe it's that Coin, a U.S. Open qualifier, all but quaked with dread when some rapid early finishes prompted officials to move her match from smaller Louis Armstrong Stadium to the largest tennis stadium on Earth, Arthur Ashe Stadium. Maybe it's that Coin looked just daunted enough by reporters afterward that a tour representative felt moved to tell her, "They don't bite."
Or heck, maybe it's that this French girl went to Clemson, as if that doesn't sound like some loopy but potentially smart movie script.
Even if Ivanovic looked ripe for felling in the first round, it's outlandish that it's Coin who wrought the biggest upset of a No. 1 player since the rankings began in 1975. Even though Ivanovic had the newly repaired thumb and the lack of practice time, it's crazy that it's Coin who caused the earliest exit of a No. 1 player in U.S. Open history. Even if Ivanovic already lost to then-No. 133 Zheng Jie at Wimbledon, still, Julie Coin?
"I don't realize yet that I beat the No. 1 in the world," Coin said. "I don't realize that I played at the big court. I don't even know how I'm going to sleep tonight. I don't know. I don't know when I will realize everything."
Not even Amelie Mauresmo had seen her play, curious given Mauresmo hails from the same French region, but by the dinner hour Thursday, a few thousand lingering New Yorkers had seen her and so had Mauresmo in a scouting role, with Coin her third-round opponent.
