Australian Open Qualifiers draws.
By Maarten Heida
January 15 2005
After an exciting 3 rounds of qualifying 12 players managed to make it through to the main draw of the Australian Open. Three of these twelve are entering their first main draw-match in a Grand Slam: Michaëlla Krajicek of the Netherlands, Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus and Aiko Nakamura of Japan.
For another
4 of those 12 it’s their first time in the main draw of the Australian Open:
Sesil
Karatantcheva of Bulgaria, Jessica Kirkland of the United States, Nannan Liu of
China and Angela Haynes of the United States.
And then
there are Elena Baltacha of Great Britain, Zuzana Ondraskova of the Czech
Republic and Zsofia Gubacsi of Hungary who hope to reach further than they have
by qualifying.
Then last
but not least Ting Li of China and Meilen Tu of the United States just hope to
improve their rankings so they will reach the main draw without having to
qualify next year.
The short
end of the straw however seems to have been drawn by Sesil Karatantcheva,
Jessica Kirkland and Nannan Liu who will play Maria Sharapova, Svetlana
Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva respectively.
Australian
Open final round qualifying:
Sesil
Karatantcheva (BUL, 1) d. Shahar Peer (ISR, 19) 6-4, 7-5
Main draw match:
Sesil
Karatantcheva (BUL) – Maria Sharapova (RUS, 4)
Jessica
Kirkland (USA) d. Yoon-Jeong Cho (KOR) 6-2, 6-4
Main draw match:
Jessica
Kirkland (USA) – Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS, 5)
Michaëlla
Krajicek (NED) d. Galina Voskoboeva (RUS,14) 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-0
Main draw match:
Michaëlla
Krajicek (NED) – Stephanie Foretz (FRA)
Nannan Liu
(CHN) d. Yuka Yoshida (JPN) 6-4, 6-3
Main draw match:
Nannan Liu
(CHN) – Vera Zvonareva (RUS, 9)
Elena
Baltacha (GBR) d. Teryn Ashley (USA) 6-3, 6-3
Main draw match:
Elena Baltacha
(GBR) – Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)
Angela
Haynes (USA, 6) d. Elise Tamaela (NED) 6-4, 6-3
Main draw match:
Angela
Haynes (USA) - Aiko Nakamura (JPN)
Zuzana
Ondraskova (CZE,7) d. Marie-Eve Pelletier (CAN,17) 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
Main draw match:
Zuzana
Ondraskova (CZE) – Dally Randriatefy (MAD)
Zsofia Gubacsi
(HUN) d. Jennifer Hopkins (USA,13) 6-1, 6-7(7), 6-1
Main draw match:
Zsofia Gubacsi
(HUN) – Lindsay Lee-Waters (USA)
Anastasiya
Yakimova (BLR, 16) d. Lina Krasnoroutskaya (RUS,9) 6-4, 6-1
Main draw match:
Anastasiya
Yakimova (RUS) – Lisa Raymond (USA, 25)
Ting Li (CHN) d.
Sandra Kloesel (GER) 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1
Main draw match:
Ting Li
(CHN) – Marta Domachowska (POL)
Meilen Tu
(USA) d. Sunitha Rao (USA) 6-2, 6-3
Main draw match:
Meilen Tu (USA) –
Klara Koukalova (CZE)
Aiko Nakamura
(JPN,12) d. Lenka Nemeckova (CZE,20) 7-6(3), 7-6(5)
Main draw match:
Aiko Nakamura
(JPN) - Angela Haynes (USA)