Qualifying stage of Australian Open 2023 is done. Both men's and women's draws, which were revealed earlier today, are now filled with 16 qualifiers on both sides. The last round of qualies brought some interesting names, which can spice up the competition in the next week's opening Grand Slam of the season.
Brenda Fruhvirtova, who fought an amazing come-back against Daria Snigur in previous round, earned her maiden Grand Slam in fabulous style with another come back from a set-down score. She defeated Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 3-6 7-6 6-4 after almost three hours of battle. Another young Czech who qualified today is Sara Bejlek. 16 years old who eliminated Alycia Parks in QR2 won easily with Erika Andreeva in the final round and will face her fellowcountry Grand Slam champion - Barbora Krejcikova in second appeareance in Grand Slam's first round.
Top seeds who survived into the last qualies round are also into the main draw. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova won with Elizabeth Mandlik 6-4 6-4 to face Martina Trevisan in AO first round. Cristina Bucsa defeated Nao Hibino 7-6 6-2 and will play another qualifier - Eva Lys, in the main draw.
The most exciting women's match today was played against Coco Vandeweghe and Yuriko Miyazaki. The American, who was a semifinalist in Melbourne 6 years ago, is coming back to the main draw after epic three-setter, where she was a set and break down on the scoreboard. Experienced US player managed to turn over the fates and win the super-tiebreak in deciding set with a dominant score 10-1.
Men's deciding qualies matches brought a few surprises today. Shang Juncheng, 17 years old Chinese - earned his maiden Grand Slam appearance after confident 6-3 6-4 against Zsombor Piros from Hungary. The Chinese will face Oscar Otte in the first round.
Oleksii Krutykh from Ukraine (ranked #188) made an upset against Denis Kudla, defeating the 6th seed of qualies from USA 3-6 6-4 6-4. It was the only one three-setter of the men's qualies finals today. Krutykh will play against Diego Schwartzman in his main draw appearance.
Dalibor Svrcina from Slovakia made the biggest upset against odds today. 20 years old Slovakian ranked #219 won pretty easily with Leandro Riedi from Switzerland (#135). Riedi was a favorite with average odd 1.24, but Svrcina gave him no chance today with 6-0 6-4 win.
