From 11 Aussie starters just two advance at Australian Open qualifiers for men

A contingent of 11 Australian men took to the courts over the past two days to fight in the Australian Open qualifying round 1. From that group just Dane Sweeny and Blake Ellis advanced, both making the most of their wildcards.

The ones that lost in round one were Alex Bolt, Bernard Tomic, Marc Polmans, Matthew Dellavedova, Edward Winter, Jason Kubler, Pavle Marinkov, Hayden Jones and Cruz Hewitt.

Sweeny advanced to round two with a 7-6(4), 6-2 win over doubles specialist Pierre-Hugues Herbert from France. He will meet (17) Jaime Faria of Portugal next up.

Ellis defeated Antoine Escoffier 6-2, 6-1 and plays Yosuke Watanuki of Japan in round 2.

Of the losers it was Jason Kubler and Hayden Jones that were closest to victory. Kubler losing 7-6(4), 7-6(4) to Brazil’s (6) Thiago Monteiro. Jones lost to August Holmgren of Denmark 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-6(10-8).

Jones was down 5-1 in the 10 point deciding tie breaker and got all the way back to 7-7 before letting victory slip.