The Heat Is On As Qualifying Concludes
by Prip
Day three of qualifying, and everything was riding on today's
performance for the 56 players playing today. Of the 32 men and
24 women, only half would make it to the main draw. The loser would
have only an extra $4,030 (Australian) in their pocket to show for
their efforts. And there was certainly no lack of effort in Melbourne
Park today. Both the men and the women played their hearts out,
putting everything they had into their tennis, straining every
muscle and pushing themselves to the limits in the sweltering heat.
The highest remaining seed on the women's side, Andrea Glass, had an
easy time against Milagros Sequera, winning 6-3 6-3, while Alexandra
Fusai played a see-saw match against India's Nirupama Vaidyanathan
who always seems to handle the heat well. 19th seeded Fusai eventually
came through 7-5 2-6 6-2 to give her at least a repeat of last year's
first round performance. Also coming through is Lina Krasnorouskaya,
who had little trouble against Maria Elena Camerin. Janette Husarova
had a bit of a tougher time, needing two tie-breakers to get through
against Dally Randriantefy. The Slovakian is still trying to get back
to the level she'd reached before being taken out of the game with the
knee injury she suffered at this very tournament in 1997, and is
making slow progress. Maja Palaversic chalked up an excellent win
over Kelly Liggan, to qualify for her first Grand Slam tournament.
Liggan would have been the first woman representing Ireland to reach
the main draw of a Grand Slam in recent memory.
The biggest efforts of the day on the women's side came from
Maria Jose Martinez against Bahia
Mouhtassine of Morocco, and Elena Bovina against Bianka Lamade.
Both matches went the distance, the former reaching 11-9 in the third
and the latter going to tie-breakers in the first two sets. Both
matches combined took 5 hours and 16 minutes, played at the peak of
one of the hottest days in Melbourne thus far. All the players will
be thanking their stars that tomorrow will see no competitive play,
with predictions of reaching 46 degrees, hotter than the infamous
Black Friday in 1939 on which 71 people died.
Three players who didn't have a good day were Katarina Srebotnik,
Ludmila Cervanova and Yuka Yoshida. The good news for Srebotnik fans
is that she looks 400% more positive than she did at the end of last
year, following a good year-end break working with Simon Walsh.
Carrying a much healthier attitude and not having too much trouble
with her ankle, the Slovenian looks to have finally made some
progress in breaking out of the "funk" she's been in, to use Martina's
term. The signs are certainly encouraging for both her and her best
friend, Tina Krizan.
On the men's side, many seeds failed to make an impact on the main
draw. Top seed Andrei Stoliarov, however, kept a successful bid
despite being pushed by Ivo Karlovic of Croatia. In a match that
nearly touched three hours, the big-serving Croat pushed the top
seed hard, and deserved to get through just as much as Stoliarov.
Serving a whopping 43 aces and 10 double-faults in the match to
Andrei's 12 and 7, the Croat took more chances than his opponent,
but came up just short. The match statistics said it all: Ivo had 75
winners to Andrei's 44, but also 68 unforced errors to Andrei's 26.
Both players had their chances to break, but the serves were just
too tough to crack, and there were only three breaks in total. The
Russian top seed only just managed to get and hold on to the break
in the end, taking the match winning only 15 more points than his
opponent.
Third seed Tommy Robredo had an easier time against Goichi Motomura,
coming through 0-6 6-2 6-2 after a very good first set from the
Japanese. Fourth seed Cyril Saulnier wished he had as much luck, and
was absolutely blitzed by doubles ace Alex O'Brien, losing 6-0 6-4.
Tomas Behrend, Ivo Heuberger and Guillermo Canas got through, while
India's entertaining Leander Paes lost to veteran Marcos Ondruska after
cruising in the first set.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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