Source : ABC NEWS
West Australia’s Talia Gibson has taken the opening step in qualifying for a grand slam for the first time, defeating returning veteran Michaela Buzarnescu of Romania 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of French Open qualifying.
The 20-year-old has competed twice in the Australian Open, but through a wildcard each time.
Buzarnescu, 37, was a useful first opponent for the 23rd seed. Though a former top-20 player, she has not played on tour since 2022, having taken a break and suffered an injury, and now being in the foothills of a return.
Gibson took just over an hour to complete her match, having had to move swiftly to court eight as she was following fellow Perth player Astra Sharma, who made quick work of dismissing American Emina Bektas 6-0, 6-0 in 36 minutes.
Daria Saville was the day’s third Australian success, but she needed rather longer to see off Briton Heather Watson 7-6 (7/2), 6-2, the match taking 6 minutes shy of 2 hours despite the second set score.
While that trio joined Bernard Tomic, Jason Kubler and Maddison Inglis in the second round of qualifiers, there were four losers on Tuesday, reducing to six the original 15 Australians who entered qualifying.
Lizette Cabrera lost to Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4, 6-2 while Storm Hunter went down to China’s Shuai Zhang 6-3, 6-2.
In men’s qualifying, Li Tu let slip a first-set advantage to lose to French wildcard Clement Tabur 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 and Omar Jasika battled hard, but was eventually overwhelmed by Colombia’s experienced world number 115 Daniel Galan 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
They joined the five Australians eliminated on Monday: James Mccabe, Alex Bolt, Arina Rodionova, Taylah Preston and Priscilla Hon.
A dozen Australians have already earned a place through their ranking, with Destanee Aiava and Tristan Schoolkate joining them via wildcards.
AAP
