While teenage hope Emerson Jones again found the going too hot in her final-round qualifying match at Flushing Meadows, the 25-year-old Melburnian Aiava came through a deciding match tiebreak to defeat rising German Emma Seidel 5-7 6-1 7-6 (10-6) on Friday.
In an absorbing two-and-a-half hour duel, Aiava was left emotional after making it to her third grand slam of the year.
She had also qualified in her home Open in Melbourne, where she went on to win her first grand slam main-draw match in January, before later enjoying a wildcard debut in the French Open despite going out in the first round in Paris.
She was up against it in her third match of the week, facing the 20-year-old world No.105 Seidel who's 63 places higher on the WTA computer and looked poised to confirm her rankings superiority after taking the first set.
But Aiava responded to reel off five straight games to take the second set and when the decider proved a tight affair, she twice served successfully to stay in the match.
Aiava then held her nerve better in the decisive first-to-10-points breaker, serving down her 10th ace before Seidel double-faulted to gift her third three-set victory of the week.
It was another hugely encouraging moment for the woman who'd earned such admiration in Melbourne in January when she talked of how she'd had to battle with borderline personality disorder (BPD) on her way to her best ever grand-slam display.
She eventually bowed out in the second round there after giving feisty 10th seed Danielle Collins plenty of trouble in another three-setter.
Earlier, 17-year-old Jones, who had also failed to get through the final round of qualifying at Wimbledon, had found Andorran world No.132 Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva too tough a hurdle as she succumbed 7-5 7-6 (9-7).
The Gold Coast youngster, currently the world's No.2 junior and now up to 199 in the rankings, had her chances, having led 5-3 in the opening stanza before also battling back to earn four set points in the second-set breaker.
But the 20-year-old Andorra held tough to win from 6-3 down in the breaker.
Three other Australians - Priscilla Hon, James Duckworth, and Jason Kubler - were also in qualifying action too on Friday, seeking to join Aiava and 13 more compatriots in the main draw, which kicks off on Sunday.
