GB’s Dart & Harris miss out on Australian Open main draw

Harriet Dart and Billy Harris, both from Great Britain, were eliminated from the Australian Open main draw due to a tiebreaker.

Dart fell to a 6-4 7-5 defeat against Japan’s Nao Hibino, despite serving for the second set.

Meanwhile, Harris ‘ efforts to reach the main draw in Melbourne for the first time ended with a 7-5 6-2 loss against Kamil Majchrzak of Poland.

The British number four lost to Jaume Munar of Spain in the first round of his Grand Slam main-draw match at Wimbledon in 2024 as a wildcard.

Seven British players will be in the singles main draw when the tournament begins on Sunday due to the defeats.

As the Australian returns to Grand Slam tennis, rising star Jacob Fearnley will face off in the first round.

British men’s number one Jack Draper will take on Argentina’s Mariano Navone, while Katie Boulter – Britain’s highest-ranked women’s player – is up against Canada’s Rebecca Marino.

Elsewhere in qualifying, Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca reached the main draw of a major for the first time with a 6-4 6-1 victory against Argentina’s 12th seed Thiago Agustin Tirante.

Fonseca, 18, established himself as one of tennis ‘ rising stars by becoming the second-youngest winner of the Next Gen ATP Finals in December.

Hady Habib defeated France’s Clement Chidekh with three match points to become the first Lebanese player to make the Grand Slam men’s singles main draw.