Destanee calling: Aussie pair make US Open main draw
Ian Chadband |
A breakthrough tennis year for Destanee Aiava and Priscilla Hon looks even more rosy after the Australian duo both made it through US Open qualifying to book coveted places in the women’s singles main draw in New York.
While teenage hope Emerson Jones again found the going too hot in her final-round qualifier, her two more experienced colleagues shone on Friday to ensure there will be 15 Australians in the big show, which starts in Flushing Meadows on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Melburnian Aiava came through a deciding match tiebreak to defeat rising German Emma Seidel 5-7 6-1 7-6 (10-6) and qualify for the season’s final grand slam for the second year in a row.
Then 27-year-old Hon outplayed Belgian Hanne Vandewinkel 6-3 6-3 to repeat her fine run at Wimbledon, where she beat new teenage star Victoria Mboko on the way to qualifying in June. This will be the Brisbane player’s third appearance in the New York slam.
After an absorbing two-and-a-half-hour duel, Aiava was the first to be left pretty emotional after making it to her third grand slam of the year in what’s proving a remarkable season for a player who has had to endure so many trials and tribulations off court.
She had also qualified in her home Open in Melbourne, where she went on to win her first grand slam main-draw match in January, before later enjoying a wildcard debut in the French Open despite going out in the first round in Paris.
Aiava was up against it in her third match this week, facing 20-year-old world No.105 Seidel, who is 63 places higher on the WTA standings and looked poised to confirm her rankings superiority after taking the first set.
But the Aussie responded to reel off five straight games to take the second, and when the decider got tight, she twice served successfully to stay in the match.
Aiava then held her nerve in the decisive first-to-10-points breaker, serving her 10th ace before Seidel double-faulted to gift her a third three-set victory of the week.
It was another hugely encouraging moment for the woman who had earned such admiration in Melbourne in January when she talked of how she’d battled with borderline personality disorder (BPD) down the years en route to achieving her best ever grand slam display.
She eventually bowed out in the second round after giving feisty 10th seed Danielle Collins plenty of trouble in another three-setter.
Earlier, 17-year-old Jones, who also failed to get through the final round of qualifying at Wimbledon, found world No.132 Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva too tough a hurdle as she succumbed 7-5 7-6 (9-7).
The Gold Coast youngster, currently the world’s No.2 junior and now up to No.199 in the rankings, had her chances, having led 5-3 in the opening stanza, before also battling back to earn four set points in the second-set breaker. The 20-year-old Andorran held tough to win 9-7 from 6-3 down.
While there’ll now be seven Australian women in the main draw, neither James Duckworth nor Jason Kubler could prevail in their final-round qualifiers, meaning the men’s contingent remains at eight.
Duckworth went down 6-1 4-6 6-2 to Hungarian Zsombor Piros, and Kubler lost to Croatian Dino Prizmic 6-3 4-6 6-1.
AAP
