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Oy oy oy: Aussies wild cards finish 0-9 across two Australian Open singles draws

The gloomy stat was sealed after Jelena Ostapenko eased past Kimberly Birrell on Tuesday evening in Melbourne.

ByTENNIS.com

Published Jan 16, 2024

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When No. 10 seed Jelena Ostapenko finished off Kimberly Birrell at the Australian Open early Tuesday evening on Court 3, it cemented one brutal statistic. Think "Oy Oy Oy!" instead of "Oi Oi Oi!"

With Birrell’s 7-6 (5), 6-1 defeat, wild cards hailing from the host nation ended up with a winless record in combining to go 0-9 across the two singles draws.

Three of the losses were tougher to swallow than the others and all occurred Monday.

Hobart semifinalist Daria Saville had wiped away a 2-5 deficit in her third set, only to get broken in a 10-point game by Magdalena Frech to end it after staving off four match points.

Saville converted six breaks, but on the flip side, dropped serve nine times after handing Frech 14 double faults.

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Coming off a quarterfinal showing in Brisbane, James Duckworth led his match with Luca Van Assche by two sets to one, but dropped the fourth and fifth sets after conceding early breaks to the Frenchman.

The most agonizing exit of all may have been Jason Kubler’s. The world No. 113 led his fifth set 4-2 and held three break points to put the match on his racquet. Daniel Elahi Galan had other ideas, eventually holding, breaking back and building a sizeable lead in a decisive 10-point tiebreaker. Kubler brought it back from 7-2 to 7-7, only to fall 10-8.

Hindsight is of course, 20/20, but the results certainly add to the sting for the retiring John Millman and highest-ranked Aussie on the WTA Tour in Arina Rodionova. Neither managed to come through qualifying, which some would argue makes the case that their main-draw snubs were justified.

Though he fired 21 aces, Duckworth managed to win just 53 percent of his first-serve points in his five-set defeat.

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For those who gained direct entry or successfully qualified, there’s still plenty of names for locals to get behind in round two.

No. 10 seed Alex de Minaur (faces Matteo Arnaldi)
Alexei Popyrin (faces top seed Novak Djokovic)
Christopher O’Connell (faces No. 16 seed Ben Shelton)
Jordan Thompson (faces No. 7 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas)
Max Purcell (faces No. 11 seed Casper Ruud)
Qualifier Storm Hunter (faces Laura Siegemund)

Thanasi Kokkinakis was on court Tuesday facing Sebastian Ofner and Ajla Tomljanovic was due to meet Petra Martic.

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