Heather Watson and Fran Jones were defeated in Melbourne Park, but Great Britain’s Harriet Dart and Billy Harris were eliminated from contention for the Australian Open.
Third seed Dart, who has recently slipped out of the world’s top 100, fought back to beat Australian teenager Taylah Preston 6-7 (7-9) 6-1 6-2.
Harris, meanwhile, needed just 70 minutes to race past Spain’s Carlos Taberner 6-1 6-2.
Dart and Harris are the last Britons standing in qualifying after Jones suffered a grueling 4-6 7-6 (15-13) 6-3 defeat by Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann and Watson lost 3-6 6-3 6-1 to American Varvara Lepchenko.
Dart will face Japan’s Nao Hibino on Thursday, while Harris, who made his Grand Slam main-draw debut at Wimbledon last year, will play Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak.
To become the tournament’s main draw, which begins on Sunday, players must have won three qualifying matches.
Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu, Sonay Kartal, Jodie Burrage, Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley all have direct entry into the main singles draw.
With a 53-minute 6-0 6-3 victory over Coleman Wong, Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca made it one step closer to becoming the main draw of a major.
Related topics
- Tennis
Leave a Reply