Purcell, Schoolkate and Vukic aiming for the big dance
Max Purcell the world no. 204 is first up against Italy’s (22) Matteo Arnaldi the world no. 134. Arnaldi fought off a match point in his round 2 match against Australia’s Alex Bolt.
Purcell a two-time doubles finalist at the Australian Open and the Wimbledon doubles champion with Matt Ebden is looking to qualify for the second time after reaching the main draw in 2020 only to lose to Jannik Sinner in the opening round.
Aleksander Vukic, a wildcard recipient in 2021 and 2022 is aiming to qualify for the first time at the Australian Open.
Vukic faces USA’s world no. 109 Michael Mmoh the ninth seed. They play on court three where Vukic got his only Grand Slam main draw win when defeating the then world no. 33 Lloyd Harris from South Africa.
“I hit on Court 3 the other day and I had goosebumps remembering the match I played there,” Vukic said. “I only have good memories.”
“Us Aussies we’re on the road for a long time, so it’s so nice to be back home. We give it 110 per cent, as you can see from the results in qualifying.”
The final Australian looking to advance is Tristan Schoolkate. He faces seasoned veteran Jan-Lennard Struff the world no. 167. Struff had reached no. 29 in the rankings back in August of 2020.
“I’m going to give it my all and hopefully I can go one more,” said the 21-year-old from Perth.
Struff was in good form last week in Canberra, reaching the semifinal at the ATP100 Challenger event and he cruised through his first two rounds including defeating the no. 4 seed Emilio Gomez.
Schoolkate lost a tough qualifying round 2 match for the Canberra event against France’s Enzo Couacaud, the Frenchman is also in good form having reached the third round of qualifying.
