Daria Saville is last Aussie hope in Paris qualifying

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Daria Saville is last Aussie hope in Paris qualifying

Of the 15 *********** hopefuls who started the week in the qualifying tournament at the French Open, only battle-hardened Daria Saville is still left in the hunt for one of the precious Roland Garros main draw places.

The 31-year-old battler had too much know-how on the Paris clay for a promising young Frenchwoman 15 years her junior, Daphnee Mpetshi-Perricard, in the second round of quallies as she eased through 6-2 6-1 on Thursday.

If the world No.134 can next defeat the equally experienced American Taylor Townsend in Friday’s make-or-break third-round qualifier, she’ll make it into the Roland Garros main draw for the ninth time, 10 years since her debut on the Paris red clay.

Back in 2015, the Russian-born Daria Gavrilova was just embarking on her career representing Australia, just as another ‘Dasha’ – her great friend Daria Kasatkina – will be doing this year.

If she makes it through, Saville, who’s twice reached the third round at Roland Garros, will take the *********** contingent in the main draw to 16, the most in recent memory.

But there’ll be no more men joining the 10 who’ve already made it after Jason Kubler, one set down when the rains came on Wednesday, couldn’t complete his comeback against Japan’s James Trotter, eventually going down 7-6 (8-6) 3-6 6-3.

The other two remaining *********** women in the draw, Astra Sharma and Talia Gibson, struggled when their second round matches, also held over, finally got under way on Thursday.

Sharma lost 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 to Spain’s Leyre Romero Gormaz, while Gibson went down 6-4 6-1 to Argentine Julia Riera.

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