Former junior world No 1s and familiar faces like Bouchard: Who’s who in the Australian Open women’s singles qualifying draw

A field of hopefuls head to Dubai for Australian Open qualifying, hoping to secure themselves one of 16 available spots in the tournament’s women’s singles main draw.

We take a look at who will be looking for Grand Slam glory.

Young guns

There are two former junior Australian Open champions in the qualifying field. Former junior world No 1 Clara Tauson of Denmark won the girls’ title in 2019 and the 18-year-old was in the Roland-Garros main draw in 2020. 20-year-old Liang En-shou of Chinese Taipei won the girls’ title back in 2018.

They are joined by world No 161 Whitney Osuigwe of the USA, another former world No 1 junior, who is aiming to return to Melbourne having reached the main draw in 2019.

The current world No 100, Kaja Juvan, is the top qualifying seed. She reached the main draw of all three Grand Slams held in 2020.

 

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Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, aged 18, made it through qualifying last year, losing to Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Melbourne main draw.

Familiar faces

There are some well-established stars in the qualifying draw too, many of whom have enjoyed plenty of success in the Australian Open in years gone by. That includes former doubles champion Timea Babos of Hungary, 2014 semi-finalist Eugenie Bouchard, and 2012 quarter-finalist Sara Errani.

Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko, now 31, has never made it beyond the third round of the Australian Open; in the first round of the main draw last year she was knocked out by home hopeful Ashleigh Barty.

Tsvetana Pironkova, a US Open quarter-finalist last year, is there too, along with others with experience of the WTA Top 40 – Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Mihaela Buzarnescu, and CiCi Bellis of the USA.

28-year-old Katarzyna Kawa has never before got past the first round of qualifying for the Australian Open, but the Pole reached the first round of the US Open last year.

Aussies

There will be nine Australian women in Dubai: Kimberly Birrell and Ellen Perez plus wildcards Seone Mendez, Abbie Myers, Storm Sanders, Ivana Popovic, Olivia Gadecki, Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz, and Alexandra Bozovic.

They will all be looking to win three matches in qualifying to advance to the main draw. After the end of the competition in Dubai, all 16 qualifiers will be joined by a further six alternate players and travel to Australia to undertake 14 days of mandatory quarantine with other main draw players.

Full qualifying field

First qualifier to come from this bracket

• Kaja Juvan [1] v Storm Sanders [WC]
• Anhelina Kalinina v Pemra Ozgen
• Rebecca Sramkova v Dalila Jakupovic
• Anastasiya Komardina v Renata Zarazua [26]

Second qualifier

• Oceane Dodin [2] v Isabella Shinikova
• Lu Jiajing v Jovana Jovic
• Ekaterine Gorgodze v Jana Fett
• Francesca Jones v Monica Niculescu [28]

Third qualifier

• Greet Minnen [3] v Alexandra Bozovic [WC]
• Veronica Cepede Royg v Asia Muhammad
• Caroline Dolehide v Ellen Perez
• Varvara Lepchenko v Francesca Di Lorenzo [27]

Fourth qualifier

• Anna-Lena Friedsam [4] v Ana Konjuh [WC]
• Cagla Buyukakcay v Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva [WC]
• Anastastia Zakharova v Georgina Garcia Perez
• Liang En-shuo v Sara Errani [17]

Fifth qualifier

• Katarzyna Kawa [5] v Whitney Osuigwe
• Lara Salden v Olivia Gadecki [WC]
• Claire Liu v Indy de Vroome
• Lara Arruabarrena v Mihaela Buzarnescu [22]

Sixth qualifier

• Anna Kalinskaya [6] v Dalma Galfi
• Clara Burel v Eva Guerrero Alvarez
• Victoria Kan v Hailey Baptiste
• Maria Camila Osorio Serrano v Barbara Haas [32]

Seventh qualifier

• Timea Babos [7] v Marina Melnikova
• Tessah Andrianjafitrimo v Naiktha Bains [PR]
• Chihiro Muramatsu v Nuria Parrizas Diaz
• Usue Maitane Arconada v Anna Karolina Schmiedlova [20]

Eighth qualifier

• Stefanie Voegele [8] v Katharina Gerlach
• Mayo Hibi v You Xiaodi
• Wang Xinyu v Kamilla Rakhimova
• Richel Hogenkamp v Viktorija Golubic [23]

Ninth qualifier

• Katarina Zavatska [9] v Clara Tauson
• Reka Luca Jani v Ankita Raina
• Cristina Bucsa v Sachia Vickery
• Olga Danilovic v Kristina Kucova [31]

Tenth qualifier

• Irina Bara [10] v Yuki Naito
• Chloe Paquet v Gabriela Talaba
• Yuan Yue v Maja Chwalinska
• Abbie Myers [WC] v Eugenie Bouchard [25]

Eleventh qualifier

• Tereza Martincova [11] v Tereza Mrdeza
• Maryna Zanevska v Laura Ioana Paar
• Rebecca Marino [PR] v Jaqueline Cristian
• [WC] Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz v Viktoriya Tomova [24]

Twelfth qualifier

• Caty McNally [12] v Daria Snigur
• Harmony Tan v Allie Kiick
• Seone Mendez [WC] v Marie Benoit
• Gabriela Ce v Elisabetta Cocciaretto [18]

Thirteeth qualifier

• Ysaline Bonaventure [13] v Natalija Kostic
• Antonia Lottner v Elitsa Kostova
• Giulia Gatto-Monticone v Valentyna Ivaknenko
• Valeria Savinykh v Natalia Vikhlyantseva [29]

Fourteenth qualifier

• Margarita Gasparyan [14] v Martina Di Giuseppe
• Karman Thandi [PR] v Mariam Bolkvadze
• Han Na-lae v Julia Grabher
• Kyoka Okamura v Tsvetana Pironkova [21]

Fifteenth qualifier

• Liudmila Samsonova [15] v Leonie Kung
• Robin Anderson v Danielle Lao
• Kurumi Nara v Lesley Pattinama Kerkhova
• Ivana Popovic [WC] v Lesia Tsurenko [30]

Sixteenth qualifier

• Mayar Sherif [16] v Akiko Omae [PR]
• Grace Min v Harriet Dart
• Daniela Seguel v Bibiane Schoofs
• Aleksandra Krunic v Olga Govortsova [19]