Lucic turns back the clock in style

A teary Mirjana Lucic-Baroni turned back the clock with a stunning upset win over second seed Simona Halep at the US Open on Friday but was focused on the future.

The last time the 32-year-old beat a top five ranked player her name was Monica Seles while it was Steffi Graf who ended the Croatian's US Open bid in 1998 knocking her out in the third round. 

While Graf and Seles have long retired as tennis greats, Lucic-Baroni battles on against a new tennis generation as she continues to try and salvage something from a career that never came close to delivering on its immense promise.

But on a sun-kissed grandstand court, the former-child prodigy seized the spotlight with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 over the Romanian second seed to claim an unlikely place in the fourth round of the year's final Grand Slam. "I feel goofy right now. I feel like I'm 15 now," said Lucic-Baroni, a qualifier ranked 121st in the world. "I feel so excited. It's crazy. "I'm 32, but I don't feel like that. My body is really great. "That's really important. I feel fit. I feel strong in my mind.”