Australian Open qualifying: Harriet Dart and Billy Harris one win away from Melbourne main draw
2025-01-08
Category: sports

Great Britain's Harriet Dart and Billy Harris have reached the final round of qualifying for the Australian Open, but Heather Watson and Fran Jones were beaten at Melbourne Park.Third seed Dart, who has recently slipped out of the world's top 100, fought back to beat Australian teenager Taylah Preston 6-7 (7-9) 6-1 6-2.Harris, meanwhile, needed just 70 minutes to race past Spain's Carlos Taberner 6-1 6-2.Dart and Harris are the last Britons standing in qualifying after Jones suffered a grueling 4-6 7-6 (15-13) 6-3 defeat by Switzerland's Jil Teichmann and Watson lost 3-6 6-3 6-1 to American Varvara Lepchenko.Dart will face Japan's Nao Hibino on Thursday, while Harris, who made his Grand Slam main-draw debut at Wimbledon last year, will play Poland's Kamil Majchrzak.Players must win three qualifying matches to reach the main draw of the tournament, which begins on Sunday.Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu, Sonay Kartal, Jodie Burrage, Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley all have direct entry into the main singles draw.Meanwhile, Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca moved one step closer to reaching the main draw of a major for the first time with a 53-minute 6-0 6-3 win over Coleman Wong.Fonseca, 18, established himself as one of tennis' rising stars by becoming the second-youngest winner of the Next Gen ATP Finals in December.