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MELBOURNE, Australia – Of the six Canadians entered in the Australian Open qualifying this year, four were scheduled on Monday.
Of those four, only Marina Stakusic managed to get through the first round.
Stakusic, who didn’t take the court until about 6 p.m. against Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain (mainly a clay-courter and one who hasn’t played much in recent months because of injury), got through fairly routinely, 6-3, 6-2.
She’ll play Teodora Kostovic of Serbia on Wednesday.
Notably – Stakusic was no longer wearing adidas, which she had sported for several years. It appears she’s one of several players who have signed on with Vuori.
Of the three Canadians who went down, Kayla Cross came the closest against former world No. 1 junior Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra.
Jimenez Kasintseva was just 14 when she became No. 1 – nearly six years ago now. She won the Australian Open juniors six years ago, but has struggled some to get a foothold in the pros.
She has finally gotten close to the top 100 – her career high of No. 107 came last October, and she’s No. 114 now.
Cross only faded at the very end of this one, winning the first set but going down 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
She’s just inside the top 200 in singles, near a career best. But she spent the last 10 days as part of the bench squad at the United Cup, which helped her bottom line but didn’t give her much practice.
It was her third attempt at qualifying in a Grand Slam; last year, she lost in the first round of both Roland Garros and Wimbledon to Patricia Maria Tig of Romania.
Here’s what it looked like on Monday.
As for Cadence Brace, also close to her career-high ranking at No. 186, the 20-year-old had a winnable opener against Australian wild card Tina Smith.
Smith, a 23-year-old lefty ranked No. 328 (career high of No. 266 came in Dec. 2024), is a lot less accomplished than Brace. But she was playing at home and has experience playing in the Australian Open qualifying.
It was close – and lengthy. Two tiebreak sets – and three hours, 10 minutes on court.
Brace couldn’t successfully attack Smith’s second serve – averaging 123 km/h. In fact, Smith had a better winning percentage on her second serve than her first serve.
Here’s what that looked like. Brace’s dress was an incredible colour, as an aside. The pics don’t do it justice.
As for Alexis Galarneau, who also spent most of the last two weeks on the bench for Team Canada at the United Cup (we did spot him playing a practice match with Daniel Michalski of Poland), a tough draw did him in.
He faced 20-year-old American Nishesh Basavareddy, who edged into the top 100 for the first time last summer – and qualified for the Next-Gen Finals – but since dropped some points and squeezed into the qualifying because those points dropped off late. Basavareddy made a run from the qualifying to the semifinals in Auckland a year ago, beating Van de Zandschulop, Altmaier, Comesana, abilo and Alex Michelson before losing to Gaël Monfils. And those points dropped off after the deadline.
That was a lot, and Galarneau went down 6-4, 6-2.
Here’s what that looked like.
On Tuesday, Liam Draxl, the No. 20 seed in the men’s draw, faces Aussie wild card Moerani Bouzige.
Bouzige, 25, is at No. 467 and has never broken the top 300.
And on the women’s side, Carson Branstine will also face an Aussie – Astra Sharma, a 30-year-old currently ranked No. 157 who got as high as No. 84 three years ago and, like Branstine, is a product of the U.S. college system.
Sharma is a better overall athlete than tennis player. But she could be a tough opponent.
Here are Draxl and Galarneau practicing over the weekend (not together), in preparation for the AO qualifying.
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