Torrential rain has put Australian Open organisers under the pump from day one for the second consecutive year as most first-round qualifying matches were postponed on Monday.
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Australian 19-year-old Taylah Preston was the first through to the second round of qualifiers as she dispatched German veteran Mona Barthel 6-1, 6-2 after waiting almost six hours to get on court at Melbourne Park.
Play did not begin until just before 4pm on the outside courts as the game’s biggest stars were allowed to continue with their indoor practice sessions uninterrupted, including Aussies Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin and international arrivals Carlos Alcaraz, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Emma Raducanu and Victoria Azarenka.
The entire first day of qualifying was washed out in 2024, but all matches were able to be completed by the Friday afternoon before the start of the main draw without organisers resorting to moving matches indoors.
Cruz Hewitt and resurgent 32-year-old Bernard Tomic were among the 21 Australians scheduled to play on Tuesday who could be forced to wait longer to begin their qualifying campaigns.
One of Australia’s leading qualifying hopes, Kimberly Birrell, who pushed inside the top 100 this week to overtake main draw entrant Olivia Gadecki as Australia’s top-ranked female player, was drawn to face Japanese teenager Sara Saito on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old Queenslander, who reached the third round at Melbourne Park in a breakout 2019 campaign but has only won a single grand slam match since, said she wanted to ride the momentum from a quarter-final appearance at the Brisbane International.
“I’m going to continue to just keep backing myself … the confidence that I’ve gained this week has been unreal,” Birrell said.
“You just can’t replicate that in practice. You need to really prove on the match court that you can do it.
“Having really done that (last) week, I’m going to use that going into next week and continue this momentum hopefully for the whole year.”
Australian wildcard Lizette Cabrera fell short in her bid to reach the Australian Open main draw for the fifth time, almost pushing Britain’s Harriet Dart to a third set but succumbing to a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) defeat.
Tour mainstay Alex Bolt faced a longer wait before his first-round clash against American Mackenzie Macdonald on court three.
Tomic, who reeled in his world ranking from no. 825 in 2022 to no. 213 ahead of the tournament, was due to face Slovakian Jozef Kovalik on Tuesday.
Hewitt, 16, was preparing for a tough first-round assignment against Georgian former world no. 16 Nikoloz Basilashvili in his first senior grand slam appearance.
French 38-year-old and former world no. 7 Richard Gasquet, who was attempting to make the main draw for the 18th time, was locked in a tough battle with Croatia’s Duje Ajdukovic to advance to the second round of qualifying.
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