She just missed her crown but Wanganui's teenaged tennis sensation is still going to the big dance.
Paige Hourigan came agonisingly close to winning the women's title at the New Zealand Championships in Albany yesterday, going down in a third-set thriller with seventh seed Imogen Golder, who attends Purdue University in Indiana.
The 15-year-old took the first set 6-4, before going off the rails to drop the second 6-0.
She recovered in the third set against the 20-year-old Golder, leading at one point 5-3 before succumbing 7-6 in a tiebreak.
Mother Tracy Hourigan said her daughter got six to seven matchpoints, but could not convert.