Tomic heads trio of Aussie qualifying hopefuls in Paris

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Tomic heads trio of Aussie qualifying hopefuls in Paris

Australia’s 15-strong band of hopefuls in French Open qualifying has been trimmed by a third after the first day at Roland Garros.

Bernard Tomic led three players into the second round, but five lost with seven still to enter the fray.

Jason Kubler and Maddison Inglis also won in Paris as they seek to join the 14 Aussies already guaranteed a place in the main draws. Qualifiers need to win three matches to secure their places.

Tomic, who has not competed in a grand slam main draw match since the 2021 *********** Open, beat Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong 7-6 (7-2) 6-3.

Kubler, who has battled back to 210 in the rankings after missing most of 2024 with injury, scrapped his way past Spain’s Alejandro Moro Canas 6-4 3-6 6-2 and Inglis took little more than an hour to dispense with Iryna Shymanovich 6-1 6-1.

However, two men and three women went out on Monday.

Local wildcard Mathys Erhard beat James Mccabe 6-1 6-1; Alex Bolt lost 4-6 6-4 7-5 to Pablo Llamas Ruiz; Arina Rodionova suffered a 6-2 6-2 defeat to Czech teenager Tereza Valentova; Taylah Preston went down to American veteran Varvara Lepchenko, who at 38 is twice her age, 6-4 7-5 and Priscilla Hon was narrowly beaten by Croatia’s Jana Fett 6-2 4-6 7-6 (12-10) in a draining two hours 45 minutes.

Playing their opening round matches on Tuesday will be Lizette Cabrera, Talia Gibson, Storm Hunter, Astra Sharma, Daria Saville, Li Tu and Omar Jasika.

Among other matches in qualifying former world No.4 and 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu of Canada beat China’s Xinxin Yao 6-0 6-0.

Elsewhere, Daria Kasatkina’s preparation for Paris were upset when she lost 6-1 6-3 to former US Open champ Emma Raducanu in the first round in Strasbourg.

The world No.17, who had won her three previous matches against the British wildcard, saved three match points before succumbing.

But Ajla Tomljanovic gained an encouraging win in Morocco, beating fifth-seed Viktoriya Tomova 7-5 4-6 6-3.

AUSTRALIANS ALREADY IN THE FRENCH OPEN MAIN DRAW:

Men: Alex de Minaur (seed), Alexei Popyrin (seed), Jordan Thompson, Aleksandar Vukic, Rinky Hijikata, Adam Walton, Chris O’Connell, James Duckworth, Tristan Scholkate (wildcard).

Women: Daria Kasatkina (seed), Kim Birrell, Olivia Gadecki, Maya Joint, Ajla Tomljanovic, Destanee Aiava (wildcard).

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