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Australian Open Qualifying Preview

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Liam Broady

Broady v Russell, youth v experience in spades (pic: @returnwinner)

With a blink of the eye and trip to New Caledonia, Australian Open qualifying arrived. This year’s final round already seems to have a slightly different feel from Slam qualifiers of recent year.

Many of the veterans involved seem like real, gnarled, veterans (in the gently ageing world of professional tennis) and some of the youngsters making the final round barely seem to have voting rights in their respective countries of origin, where permitted.

It all adds up to a number of interesting match ups and novel names who will be the final additions to the field for the first Grand Slam of 2015.

THIRTY SOMETHINGS

Jurgen Melzer is perhaps the most immediately recognisable name in the draw. The former French Open semi-finalist is now 33, but his enthusiasm for the game appears undiminished, despite dropping out of the top 100 for now. His opponent will be Steve Darcis, the Nadal-slaying Belgian who is back in fine form after injury, and racking up wins in Challengers.

No-one, this year will quite do veteran like Michael Russell. The American baseliner with the penchant for tank tops is in his final year on tour. He turns 37 in May, but fitness has always been a strong aspect of his game. Russell takes on one of Britan’s two up-and-comers who have made it thus far, Liam Broady. Russell has an extra 15 years of experience to draw on here if he’s to make one final appearance in the main draw. His best known encounter is letting a two set lead slip against Lleyton Hewitt eight years ago

Jan Hernych (35) outlasted one youngster, Adam Pavlasek, with a 14-12 third set victory, and he takes on Alex Kuznetsov looking to make his 21st Grand Slam main draw, while last week’s reviwew focused on the renewed singles appetite of Lukasz Kubot (32), who is up against Illya Marchenko.

THE YOUTH OF TODAY AND TOMORROW

Elias Ymer

Ymer – give him space to be his own man/boy (pic: @returnwinner)

No match out of the 16 is quite exciting tennis hipsters like the meeting of Elias Ymer, and Hyeon Chung.

The two 18-year-olds have been touted as players with great potential, with Ymer the next unfortunate attempting to emerge from the Swedish shadow cast by Wilander, Edberg, Jarryd and friends.

Ymer was good enough to beat Igor Sijsling in Chennai last week, and Mikhail Kukushkin on the clay courts of Bastad last year. His career seems to have been focused on developin to play in the seniors,where as Chung made the 2013 Wimbledon junior finals, as Korea looks for a first player to make an impact at tour level since Hyung Taik Lee.

But they are made to look a little more mature by the presence of 17-year-old Omar Jasika in the draw. The current US Open junior champion came through a lengthy three setter with another Australian J.P.Smith He’s up against Ion Tiriac’s Romanian hope Marius Copil, 

Fast Tube

 TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED

Dane Propoggia

Dane Propoggia is haring towards an unlikely Australian Open place (pic: @returnwinner)

Australian Dane Propoggia has yet to make it beyond the quarter-finals on the Challenger Tour, but with straight sets wins over Brydan Klein, and most notably US Open qualifier James McGee, Propoggia has a sudden chance to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. 20-year-old Briton Kyle Edmund is his opponent, and if he can match the performance level required to beat McGee, he may have a chance.

Frenchman Vincent Millot is quite happy to confess to his existence as a nomadic tennis journeyman of finite ability, but one thing he would seem to do is look after himself in the off-season. He plays Jimmy Wang as he attempts to qualify for the tournament for the third time. Millot, the 2011 Noumea champion, has been given first round matches with Jurgen Melzer and Andy Murray as ‘rewards’ for his previous efforts.

Japan’s Hiroki Moriya last qualified for a Grand Slam in 2012. The 5’5″ Japanese is up against Ruben Bemelmans, while talented but frequently injured Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev meets another Japanese, Yuichi Sugita.

And US collegiate stand out Jarmare Jenkins is close to being rewarded for spending the latter part of 2014 in Australia, where he backed up strong performances in Futures with a Challenger final in Traralgon. He is up against German Tim Puetz.

Very random qualifier winner predictions: Jenkins, Melzer, Ymer, Smyczek, Beck, Hernych, Bedene, Wang, Russell, Moriya, Copil, Edmund, Sugita, Kubot,  Bhambri, Arnaboldi

Many thanks to @ReturnWinner on Twitter for permission to use her photos taken at Australian Open qualifying. You can check out her extensive, Benoit Paire, heavy, Flickr album here.


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