What Meaghan Francella has accomplished in her first season on the LPGA Tour is rather remarkable in that it is so extraordinarily rare.

Never mind that she won in her third start.

Francella has now twice taken down the No. 1 player in the world in a head-to-head battle. She beat Annika Sorenstam on the fourth hole of a sudden death playoff for her first win in Mexico in March, when Sorenstam was still the No. 1 player.

Today she beat world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa in an 18-hole match at the HSBC Women’s World Match Play at Wykagyl.

“That’s pretty good,� Ochoa said. “We talked about it before, when she beat Annika in the playoff. And it’s not easy to beat Annika in the last round or in a playoff.

“That tells you that she’s a really tough player and she’s very motivated to win and she’s not afraid. Good for her. I wish her the best for the tournament.�

Just think of the odds of even getting that type of opportunity twice. Rarely is it one player against another on Tour. So what are the chances of even playing the No. 1 player in a direct faceoff, never mind also getting that chance against the new No. 1 in match play a few months later?

And to beat both, well, that’s plain off the charts.

“Yeah, like I said when in the beginning, when I first came out here I didn’t think I would beat Annika in my third event,â€? Francella calmly said. “And standing up on the tee with Lorena today, still, it’s a little intimidating.”

Francella still has a long way to go at the HSBC, because there are four matches remaining for the ultimate champ and runnerup, two tomorrow—she begins at 8:03 a.m. against Pat Hurst—and two more Sunday.

Hurst, incidentally, stared down Sorenstam in the U.S. Open last summer, but was ultimately beaten in an 18-hole playoff.