Opinion
Day 2 of the qualifiers saw 13 Aussie hopefuls take to the courts in an attempt to reach the main draw of the Australian Open. For a number of them it was an opportunity to play in front of a paying home crowd on the major arenas in the tennis precinct.
In all, 14 Australians played on a typically warm Melbourne day with mixed results for a slightly disappointing 6-8 win-loss ratio.
James Duckworth’s loss to fellow journeyman Mikhail Kukushkin, five years older and ranked 38 positions below him, was the biggest shock, coming in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4
Duckworth has competed in the main singles draw of the Australian Open since 2012 bar 2018, and while he has never advanced beyond the second round, he has always been a serious competitor.
The 35-year-old Kukushkin has also been a regular competitor in the men’s singles draw and had his best result in the slams in 2012, reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open.
Marc Polmans started the day off well for the Aussies with a good win over 24th seed Slovakian Lukas Klein. His straight-sets win over a seeded player was duplicated later in the day when Li Tu beat 25th seed Jozef Kovalik.
However, a couple of the younger Australian wildcards were soundly beaten by their more highly credentialed and experienced opponents. Victorian Omar Jasika won only two games and West Australian Philip Sekulic won six games in a pair of straight-sets losses.
Tristan Schoolkate came out on top of a tough three-setter, while 18-year-old South Australian wildcard Edward Winter won five games in the first set of his battle with Japan’s Rio Noguchi, a player six years older and ranked more than 250 positions above him, but eventually succumbed in straight sets.
Among the women, I was disappointed to see Maddison Inglis’s Australian Open campaign over when she lost a tough three-setter to Kristina Mladenovic.
Elysia Bolton, 22 years old and ranked 680 in the world, was unable to overcome the tough task of beating a seeded opponent, Englishwomen Jodie Burrage, who was ranked over 500 places above the Australian rookie and had two Wimbledon main draw singles appearances to her credit despite being just one year older
Alexandra Bozovic can certainly hold her head up high despite losing in two tough tiebreaker sets to No. 1 seed American Alycia Parks, who would have been an automatic entry to the main draw with her updated ranking of 67.
Priscilla Hon, Astra Sharma and Ellen Perez all showed enough form to advance through to the second round of the qualifiers and round off a second day that should be ranked as a successful one for the future of Australian tennis. Unfortunately, Perez’s win came at the expense of fellow Australian Petra Hule, who is four years younger and will benefit greatly from this introduction to the big time.
With the Australian Open proper fast approaching, we enter Day 3 with plenty of interest in the Australian players remaining.
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