In 1972, Wendy Hicks won the US Open women's singles title. It would be 47 years before another American-born player replicated the feat. For those of you keeping score at home, that means right about now. At the 2019 US Open, held December 17-21 in Fort Worth, Texas, Lily Zhang secured her first ever US Open women's singles title. Zhang, a California native and five-time US women's singles national champion, overcame Japan's Mayuka Taira to secure the enormous trophy. After Taira secured the first game, Zhang leveled matters in the second. In the ever-pivotal third game, Taira secured a 10-8 lead, only to watch Zhang steal the game with four straight points. With momentum reclaimed, Zhang kept her foot on the gas with a (8-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5) win. The win caps a stellar year for Zhang. Not only did she go 4-for-4 on gold medals at the Pan Am Championships, she also shocked the world with a brilliant run to the semifinals of the ITTF Women's World Cup. For her efforts, Zhang was recognized as the ITTF "Breakthrough Star" of 2019, an honor emphatically punctuated by the gargantuan US Open trophy she just won in Fort Worth. Her homegirl Wendy Hicks would be proud.

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