Emily Appleton's professional tennis career has continued to throw up a few unexpected fireworks on and off the court in Greece.
The 18-year-old Sky Sports Scholar is in Heraklion throughout March for three tournaments in the singles and doubles.
Surrey's rising star began her campaign in Crete by reaching the singles semi-finals of the ITF 15K event, taking out Germany's second seed Laura Schaeder before losing to Czech Republic's Anastasia Detiuc.
In her second doubles event, Appleton was partnered by Finland's Mia Nicole Eklund and lost a three-set thriller in the final to Danish pair Emilie Francati and Maria Jespersen.
These results have helped her leap up in the rankings to 617 in the singles and 464 in the doubles.
"It has certainly been a week to remember in Greece!," Appleton said. "The day I was supposed to play my first match, we had 40mph winds and a dust storm came in from the Sahara and made it too dangerous to play.
"We spent the day with an orange sky! It was surreal and just like being on Mars.
"After this weather setback the tournament finally started and we all settled down and I managed to reach the last 16 in singles and final in doubles.
"It was a really tight final. Our opponents served so well throughout so it was tough to break them. But we managed to grab the second set and then the third set was down to a 10-point tie-breaker which we narrowly lost 10-8.
"It was a high-level match and I'm really pleased how it's all gone. I'm here for one more week before heading home. Let's hope for better weather this week!"