It is day three of qualifying for the French Open, three of seven Australian men advanced to round two, while play was suspended on day two with the women yet to complete their matches.
Canberra, Australia – 23 March: No. 4 seed Australia’s Lizette Cabrera hits a backhand against No. 5 seed, Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupovic in a quarterfinal at the ITF Pro Circuit tennis event in Canberra. (Photo by Rob Keating/Keating Media) #ACTClayIntl #protour – After four Australian women had fallen before her match, Cabrera looks to be the Australian woman to advance to round two of the French Open qualifying.
Thanasi Kokkinakis, Bernard Tomic, and Akira Santillan play on day three with the aim of advancing to the third round where the winners will be rewarded with a spot in the main draw.
Five Australian women are taking part in the qualifying. Court 13 was the place to be to watch the Australian women, with Olivia Rogowska completing her match with the score carried over at 7-5, 6-7, 1-2 on serve in the third set. World No.190 Kathinka Von Deichmann from Liechtenstein went on to win the match, taking the third set 6-3.
Patricia Hon got off to a hot start, winning the first set 6-0, only to go down to Italian player Deborah Chiesa, the world ranked 163. The final score was 0-6, 6-2, 6-4. Lizette Cabrera also playing on court 13 in a first-round qualifying match and is currently on-court against Japan’s no. 210 ranked Junri Namigata. At the time of writing, she had just won the first set 6-4.
Destanee Aiava, the 196th ranked player on the WTA rankings was another Australian to get off to a good start, taking the first set 6-2 against China’s Liu Fangzhou, who is ranked at 147. The Chinese played came back to win the match 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Arina Rodionova was another Australian woman to lose in the first round. She was defeated by France’s Harmony Tan 6-3, 6-4. Tan is ranked at 367 compared to 124 for Rodionova.
Kokkinakis did enough in his opening round after returning from injury after his freak fall at the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 tournament. Tomic who recently reached a Challenger event final, only to lose to fellow Australian John Millman was behind early in the first set before powering to an easy win.
Tomic plays Great Britain’s Jeremy Clarke, Kokkinankis plays Jürgen Zopp from Estonia and Santillan faces Alexandre Müller from France, the world 377 ranked player.
