Australian Open 2021

[jaydeep]

What a huge win by Ankita but disappointed by Ram's loss, most of the time he struggle against grinder.

[sameerph]

Prejanesh loses the first set 2-6. Making a lot on unforced errors. Needs to step it up to come back in this match.

[PKBasu]

Prajnesh also lost 26 36

[Dinesh]

Not to be. 6-2 6-3. Bad loss for Prajnesh. Once again, it comes down to the fighter Ankita to keep us going. Go Anki!!!

[Sanjay]

Tame defeat... highly disappointing to a lower ranked player.

[jayakris]

Argh...

[S_K_S]

Tame defeat... highly disappointing to a lower ranked player.

He might have been lower ranked but he certainly didn't play to his ranking. He was a wall with flair that PG just couldn't get to grips with. There wasn't a huge difference but the Frenchman kept PG at arms length throughout and PG always had scoreboard pressure against him.The forehand slice dropshots by the Frenchman were a delight.

[sameerph]

True, also the Frenchman had such good depth on his grondstrokes and ran down everything that Prajnesh threw at him.

These grand slam qualies are so tough. They are like SF/ final of a challenger. There are a whole lot of players with same level going up and down a few notches on a day which can make a lot if difference.

[Tolamu]

[Q3] Ankita Raina (IND, 180) l. Olga Danilovic (SRB, 183) 2-6 6-3 1-6

Sad loss for Ankita in thr FQR. Hope some LL spots crop up.

[Sin Hombre]

As sameer said, qualifying to a GS is similar degree of hardness as winning a Challenger.

It is no surprise Ram has never qualified given he hasn't won a Challenger in many more attempts either.

[PKBasu]

6 Lucky Losers will be allowed to travel to Melbourne -- and will receive a minimum of US$10,000. Four higher-ranked players have already lost in FQR, so will get those LL slots ahead of Ankita. There are 3 other higher-ranked players left -- we need all but one of them to lose if Ankita is to obtain one of the LL spots. Two of them are on court now.

[sameerph]

As sameer said, qualifying to a GS is similar degree of hardness as winning a Challenger.

It is no surprise Ram has never qualified given he hasn't won a Challenger in many more attempts either.

True, RamK has to first start to show the consistency and the class to win a couple of challengers and then qualfication for main draw of slams will follow although not given. For instance, Prajnesh, Sumit ,Yuki and Saketh have all won more than 1 challenger titles and have also qualified for the main draw of the slams. Clearly, RamK is not in same league as a player as the others mentioned above still.

[sameerph]

Ankita was clearly unlucky in drawing Danilovic in the final qualifying round. Danivolic is a great talent having already won a WTA title at 17 years of age. Her rankings has fallen due to injury break, else she would have been playing the main draw directly.

[Dinesh]

I think Ankita will be selected as part of the 8 top-ranked players for the lucky loser draw. She’s 7th in that list, and if I read it correctly, 6 will be picked for LLs. Hopefully, she will be lucky there!

[Dinesh]

Besides, Kirsten Flipkens also injured her ligament playing in the Abu Dhabi WTA 500 but she has a month to recover now. We won’t know if or when she decides to withdraw (in which case, I’m not sure how AO will decide the LLs - probably they will assign doubles players on the site).