Australian Open qualifying: Harriet Dart & Billy Harris defeated
2025-01-09
Category: sports

Great Britain's Harriet Dart and Billy Harris both missed out on the Australian Open main draw as they lost in the final round of qualifying.Dart fell to a 6-4 7-5 defeat against Japan's Nao Hibino, despite serving for the second set.Meanwhile, Harris' efforts to reach the main draw in Melbourne for the first time ended with a 7-5 6-2 loss against Kamil Majchrzak of Poland.The British number four made his Grand Slam main-draw debut as a wildcard at Wimbledon in 2024, where he lost in the first round to Spain's Jaume Munar.The defeats mean there will be seven British players in the singles main draw when the tournament starts on Sunday.Rising star Jacob Fearnley is set to face Nick Kyrgios in the first round as the Australian returns to Grand Slam tennis.British men's number one Jack Draper will take on Argentina's Mariano Navone, while Katie Boulter - Britain's highest-ranked women's player - is up against Canada's Rebecca Marino.Elsewhere in qualifying, Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca reached the main draw of a major for the first time with a 6-4 6-1 victory against Argentina's 12th seed Thiago Agustin Tirante.Fonseca, 18, established himself as one of tennis' rising stars by becoming the second-youngest winner of the Next Gen ATP Finals in December.Hady Habib saved three match points to beat Clement Chidekh of France and become the first Lebanese player in the Open era to appear in a Grand Slam men's singles main draw.The 26-year-old, who made his Olympic debut in Paris in 2024, became the first player from Lebanon to win a ATP Challenger title last year.