Inglis fights on into third round and is the last Aussie female still standing

Australia’s Maddison Inglis has shown her fighting spirit to again win at the Australian Open and advance to the third round for the second time in her career. The previous occasion was at the 2022 Open.

Next up is Naomi Osaka, a two-time Australian Open champion.

Inglis has now won five matches, including three in qualifying. Today she defeated Laura Siegemund of Germany, the world no. 48.

Inglis got off to a dream start when she broke serve in the opening game.

That was short lived with the German hitting back straight away.

There was a third consecutive break with Inglis breaking to lead 2-1. Another break followed.

Siegemund finally held serve in the fifth game to lead 3-2. Inglis held for 3-3.

Inglis broke again in the 9th game and then served out the set to win 6-4.

In the second set Inglis was broken in the sixth game to fall behind 2-4. The German then held for a 5-2 advantage.

The Australian then won four games in a row to hold a 6-5 lead and serve for the match.

Siegemund started that game with a winner, followed by three unforced errors off of the racquet of Inglis. Eventually Siegemund would break to stay in the match and force a tiebreaker, one which she dominated to level the match.

The third set didn’t start well for the Australian as she was immediately broken. Siegemund consolidated the break to lead 2-0.

Siegemund serving for the match

Games were going with serve until Siegemund was serving at 5-4 for a spot in the third round.

The first point was won by the German after she played a nice short volley winner.

Inglis then stepped in and smacked back a good return of serve down the line, Siegemund couldn’t get it back.

The next point saw Siegemund play a drop shot off of a volley. Inglis being aware of the German having cut off previous shots at the net, looped the ball over the German, she raced back and hit a shot that just missed wide.

Inglis could now see an opening to get the break back that would keep her alive.

Siegemund had other ideas as she hit a winner on the next point. Pressure was building at 30-30.

Inglis sent the next return deep to the backhand corner and Siegemund wasn’t able to get much pace on the shot, the ball sat up in mid-court, Inglis approached the net and got to play a volley back at an angle. Siegemund retrieved the ball but left it high near the net and Inglis reached high to volley to the open court.

It was now break point with everything on the line.

With the crowd cheering her on, Inglis moved into position to receive serve. Inglis was hitting backhands to the Siegemund forehand, twice the German sliced back, on the third she sliced it wide, 5-5.

Inglis held and was in the lead at 6-5. The pressure was on Siegemund to hold serve and take it to a breaker.

The game was held, but on the last point Inglis stumbled a bit as she sprinted to a drop shot. After a slight limp to give the crowd a scare, she was fine.

Siegemund made too many unforced errors in the 10 point tiebreaker and Inglis held her nerve to claim a 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-6(10-7) victory.

An example of the poor play from Siegemund came at 5-2, she worked her way into an attacking position at the net and then pushed a slice forehand over the baseline.

After Inglis reached up to hit a high backhand volley into the open court on match point, Inglis fell to the ground as she took in the moment.

Osaka awaits…

Preston goes down fighting

The other Australian female playing on day 5 was Taylay Preston. She faced the no. 13 seed Linda Noskova from Czechia.

Noskova took the first set comfortably, 6-2. Preston hit back to take the second set 6-4. But in the end she could not maintain the level of play that was required to get the better of Noskova, the Czech claiming the match 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in one hour and 44 minutes.

I have been photographing tennis tournaments in Canberra since 2016. I had a look in the archives and found an interesting shot of Jason Kubler as he was cheering for Maddison Inglis all those years ago.

I looked up what match it was, Inglis was playing the Verena Meliss from Italy back in October, 2018.

Inglis was ranked at no. 395, Meliss at no. 609.

Inglis won 6-2, 6-4.