Australia’s Bernard Tomic has been sensationally bundled out of the last round of qualifying at Australian Open 2018, with Italian Lorenzo Sonego earning his Grand Slam debut – and a first ever main draw appearance at ATP Tour level – with a 6-1 6-7(5) 6-4 victory.
Tomic, a former world No.17, quickly found himself down a set against the 22-year-old world No.218, who took it in just 19 minutes and looked ready to continue his dominance in the match.
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But the Aussie, looking for his 10th consecutive Australian Open appearance, didn’t appear fazed. He stuck to the task at hand, keeping the young Italian off balance with some crafty work and – despite staring down the barrel of a breakpoint on three occasions – eventually managed to close out the second set in a tiebreaker.
Both players remained on serve in a tense final set, until Tomic opened up a single opportunity at 4-4, but was unable to convert. Sonego then pounced on the Australian’s serve, opening up two match points – which Tomic miraculously saved – before silencing the crowd on his third opportunity.
Elsewhere, flamboyant German Dustin Brown moved through after defeating teenage American Stefan Kozlov in three sets.
Brown has gone the distance in all three of his qualifying rounds at Melbourne Park this year, highlighted by an epic climax to his match against China’s Di Wu, where he saved four match points before clinching it on the 10th of his own, winning the final set tiebreaker 18-16.
“It was a very tough match (against Kozlov), but I’ve played a few three-setters already and I’m confident I can stay in there,” Brown said. “I was happy to pull it out, and that my streak didn’t break from playing all the main draws at Grand Slams, even though I’ve been injured.”
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Canadian fifth seed Vasek Pospisil won through with a tough three-set victory over Ramkumar Ramanathan and his compatriot Peter Polansky received a break as a lucky loser in the main draw after earlier losing to Indian Yuki Bhambri.
It was a mixed day for the Americans overall with fourth seed Bjorn Fratangelo losing in straight sets to Frenchman Quentin Halys – the wildcard entrant from last year making his own way into the 2018 main draw.
Ernesto Escobedo (No.11) was upset by Norwegian teenager Casper Ruud, who will now make his Grand Slam debut at Melbourne Park.
However, Americans Mackenzie McDonald, Denis Kudla and Kevin King were all successful, with King adding to a difficult day for the locals; Tomic preceded into the locker rooms by John-Patrick Smith and Bradley Mousley.
Other winners included Belgian Ruben Bemelmans, Dennis Novak of Austria, German Matthias Bachinger, Elias Ymer of Sweden and Czech Vaclav Safranek.