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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. |