(Melbourne) Canadians Liam Draxl and Marina Stakusic are just one victory away from entering the main draw of the Australian Open, after triumphing in the second round of qualifying on Wednesday.
Draxl, the 20e seeded in the qualifying table, had difficulty measuring the Ukrainian Vitaliy Sachko (no 166) 6-3, 5-7 and 7-6 (7) after a marathon of two hours and 52 minutes.
The 24-year-old Ontarian will face American Mackenzie McDonald in the next round, sixth seed in qualifying, who defeated Hugo Grenier 7-6 (4), 6-1.
For her part, Stakusic reached the third and final round of qualifying by easily winning 6-0, 6-2 against Serbian Teodora Kostovic.
Stakušić (127e), who defeated the Spaniard Nuria Parrizas-Diaz (261e) in the first round, will face in the third round the Chinese Lin Zhu (163e). The latter beat the Andorran Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva (114e) 6-1 and 6-2. Jimenez Kasintseva had eliminated the Canadian Kayla Cross (198e) in the first round.
Taking advantage of the troubles in the service of Kostovic (176e), who was broken six times in seven games with balls in hand, Stakusic ended the match in 67 minutes. Kostovic won only 18% of the points with his second ball.
Stakusic hit 12 winners, while Kostavic made 25 unforced errors.
Later, Carson Branstine (179e) was forced to retire against the Ukrainian Daria Snigur (136e), while the latter led 6-4 and 4-2.
The tournament organizers also announced the seeds before the day’s matches. Unsurprisingly, world number ones Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka are the favorites.
Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime and his compatriot Denis Shapovalov are respectively seventh and 21ste seeded among the men, while Victoria Mboko and Leylah Fernandez are 17e and 22e.
The main draw singles competitions will begin on Sunday.
Yulia Starodubtseva [6] – 
