Maddison Inglis reaches final round of Australian Open qualifying

Australian journeywoman Maddison Inglis is one win away from a “dream” return to grand slam tennis after she came back to upset a seeded opponent in qualifying on Wednesday.

Kimberly Birrell and Destanee Aiava also navigated 30C heat at Melbourne Park to advance to the final round of Australian Open qualifying as Birrell eliminated fellow Queenslander Priscilla Hon in three sets.

Both 26-year-old Queenslanders with main draw experience, Birrell and Hon were forced to do battle for the second time in eight days after they met in the first round of the Brisbane International.

The result was almost identical, as the higher ranked Birrell started slowly but fought back to claim the first set before she clinched the decider for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory.

Aiava, who has had to battle body-shaming online trolls and overcome what she felt was an inadequate preparation with Australia’s United Cupt team, dispatched Hungarian opponent Panna Udvardy in straight sets to book a showdown with German Eva Lys on Thursday.

Lys had been pushed by Arina Rodionova on Wednesday but was able to defeat the Australian veteran in straight sets.

Inglis credited Birrell’s “inspiring” run to the quarterfinals in Brisbane with fuelling her resilient 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.

Birrell claimed a 7-5, 7-5 win over world No.8 Emma Navarro as she entered the top 100 and became Australia’s highest ranked woman.

Inglis, 26, made the third round of the Australian Open in 2022 and qualified for Wimbledon months later, but faded out of public consciousness in the three years since after failing to secure another grand slam berth.

She suffered a heartbreaking three-set defeat in the final round of qualifying last year, as did Hon, whose campaign was ended by Birrell on Wednesday.

“I said to Kim, last week was so inspiring – if she can do it, why can’t we do it? It gave us all that confidence to beat those top girls. I actually did try to channel a little bit of Kim out there today,” Inglis said.

“She fights for every point, no matter what happens the point before, and that’s what I tried to do today.”

The humble Inglis also thanked compatriot Jaimee Fourlis for wearing out her second-round opponent in a gruelling three-hour, 43-minute match the day before.

“Thanks to Jaimee for wearing her out a little bit … (Sorribes Tormo) has really long matches and battles, and she never goes away,” Inglis said.

“Along with nerves and everything, you’ve just got to try and stay calm and keep cool.”

Inglis said she drew on the elation of her thrilling 2022 Open performance whenever times got tough on tour.

“Tennis can turn so quickly. I do look back to those moments,” she said.

“When you’re having those moments where you’re not playing that great and things aren’t going your way … I do go back and I look at the highlights of those matches, and remind myself I can play like that.

“I had one of my best weeks here a few years ago … I’d love to get back in the main draw, it would be a dream.”

Taylah Preston lost to British No. 3 seed Harriet Dart 6-7, 6-1, 6-2, while Dane Sweeny could not repeat his exploits from the day before as he ran out of steam in a 6-2, 6-2 loss to Portugal’s Jaime Faria.

Astra Sharma was also eliminated, but Australia had two more final-round hopefuls in Blake Ellis and Elena Micic who were due to play on Wednesday night.