ALLOWING enough time to quarantine for 14 days, the Australian Open qualifiers have been confirmed following the completion of the three-round qualification stage over in the UAE. Hosted in Dubai three weeks prior to the Australian Open first round kicking off, 16 men and 16 women earned their places in the respective 128-player draws.

The successful qualifiers had to win three matches to make their way into the Australian Open main draw, and a mix of youth and experience will take to the courts next month.

Looking at the women’s draw, the experience begins with 2012 Roland Garros finalist Sara Errani, as well as two-time Grand Slam doubles winner Timea Babos who have both qualified in the singles draw. Fresh off a starring run to the 2020 US Open quarter finals, Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova has qualified for the main draw to try and replicate her run in Melbourne.

The top ranked qualifier was Slovenian Kaja Juvan, with the 20-year-old ranked 104th in the world, just missing out on an automatic spot in the main draw. Having won through to the second round at both Roland Garros and US Open, Juvan will be eyeing off a win for the first time at Melbourne Park. Third seed in qualifying, Belgian Greet Minnen also booked her spot at Melbourne Park, with the 110th ranked 23-year-old having only made main draws at the three Grand Slams last year, and made a second round at the Australian Open.

Without a doubt the best story was the qualification of 243rd ranked Brit, Francesca Jones, who has overcome Ectrodactyly Ectodermal Dysplasia (EED) to inspire many around the world. EED is a rare genetic condition where Jones was born with one less finger on each hand, and only seven toes. At only 20-years-old, the Leeds-born talent is appearing in her first Grand Slam main draw.

Among others to earn main draw spots in the women’s draw were top ranked Egyptian Mayar Sherif, Italian teenage young gun Elisabetta Cocciaretto, and Canadian 30-year-old Rebecca Marino who last played at Melbourne Park back in 2013.

Looking at the ATP qualifiers, one of the most talked about players is teenage sensation Carlos Alcaraz who lost himself no followers on his smashing of second qualifying seed Hugo Dellien in order to make the main draw. Aslan Karatsev is the highest ranked qualifier heading to Melbourne Park, with the 27-year-old Russian winning a spot. Dellien and top seed Gregoire Barrere – who lost to 182nd ranked Portugese player Frederico Ferreira Silva – were both knocked out of contention.

The player with the highest career ranking is Serbian Viktor Troicki, with the former world number 12 making his way into the singles draw, alongside rising talents, Michael Mmoh and Elias Ymer. Australian Bernard Tomic was the only local hope to book a spot in the main draw out of the qualifying contenders.

Dutch player Botic Van De Zandschulp ensured the Netherlands had a representative in the men’s draw, much like Sergiy Stakhovsky for Ukraine. A young gun to watch is 20-year-old Czech Tomas Machac, while 23-year-old Russian Roman Safiullin had some promising performances last year and is also into the Round of 128.

The full list of qualifiers are below in the table.

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