Hold the cellphone, Australia’s French Open ladies’s singles shares will not be as bleak as first feared.
From the heady days of Ash Barty hoisting the trophy 4 years in the past to no Australian feminine within the Roland Garros draw for the season’s second grand slam beginning on May 28.
That appeared the dire situation if not for Tennis Australia’s reciprocal wildcard association with the French tennis federation.
But TA officers are actually holding out hope former top-20 star Daria Saville and three-time grand slam quarter-finalist Ajla Tomljanovic shall be match for the clay-court main regardless of having not performed a match in 2023 due to knee accidents.
Tomljanovic stays on the Open entry checklist whereas Saville is contemplating a shock comeback after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament solely 5 months in the past on the Japan Open.
Saville is alleged to be recovering forward of time and considering making use of her injury-protected rating to play in Paris.
Tomljanovic additionally stays an opportunity after cruelly being compelled out of the Australian Open – and each occasion since – after having fun with a profession yr in 2022.
The 29-year-old reached her second-straight Wimbledon quarter-final, falling to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in three high-quality units, earlier than spectacularly ending Serena Williams’ adorned profession en path to the final eight on the US Open.
Saville’s devastating setback couldn’t have come at a extra premature second both.
After a wretched run with a debilitating foot harm compelled Saville out of the highest 400, the one-time world No.1 junior had clawed her manner again to the cusp of the highest 50 final November earlier than catastrophe struck once more.
Aussie tennis followers are actually sweating on Tomljanovic and Saville making inconceivable returns at Roland Garros.
Their potential absence, and final yr’s retirement of Barty, would in any other case depart world No.113 Kim Birrell, herself on the comeback path from severe harm, as Australia’s highest-ranked lively participant on the WTA Tour.
Birrell missed the direct entry cut-off, leaving TA with a troublesome option to make over who receives their Roland Garros wildcard.
Rising star Olivia Gadecki, the world No.151 mentored by 2019 champion Barty, additionally has claims, whereas fellow top-200 gamers Priscilla Hon, Jaimee Fourlis and Fed Cup ace Storm Hunter are different candidates.
Whoever misses out additionally has the choice of making an attempt to qualify by profitable three sudden-death matches on the Parisian purple dust, one of many hardest assignments in tennis.
While it shapes as a lean singles marketing campaign for Australia’s ladies, world No.19 Alex de Minaur will spearhead a comparatively wholesome Australian males’s contingent from May 28 to June 11.
Like Tomljanovic, 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios has not performed in 2023 due to a knee harm and stays beneath a health cloud.
But de Minaur will at the very least be joined in the primary draw by resurgent quartet Jason Kubler, former French Open junior champion Alexei Popyrin, Chris O’Connell and Max Purcell, in addition to Jordan Thompson and sure wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Kicking on from his breakout 2022 season, Kubler this week cracked a career-high No.63 within the rankings whereas O’Connell registered enormous wins over Ugo Humbert and former world No.2 and reigning Olympic champion Alexander Zverev en path to his maiden ATP semi-final final week in Hamburg.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
