Hunter leads Australia's Wimbledon qualifying charge

Storm Hunter's hopes of reaching Wimbledon's main draw remain alive after a straight-sets win. (AP PHOTO)

Storm Hunter has followed up her exciting French Open foray to lead four Australian women into the second round of Wimbledon qualifying.

A month after being the only Australian to successfully qualify at Roland Garros, and then winning her first-round match on the Paris clay, Hunter edged a step closer to making the Wimbledon main draw.

The left-hander beat Brit Mingge Xu 7-5 6-4 on the Roehampton grass courts to set up a second-round tussle on Wednesday with Russian top seed Elina Avanesyan.

Like in Paris, Hunter will need to survive three sudden-death matches to qualify for the London grand slam.

Jaimee Fourlis, Olivia Gadecki and Priscilla Hon also won their opening qualifiers on Tuesday.

Fourlis beat Slovenia's Polona Hercog 6-3 4-6 6-3 and next faces Slovakian Viktoria Hruncakova on Wednesday.

Gadecki outclassed American teenager Katrina Scott 6-3 6-4 to book a date with another US hopeful, Ann Li.

And Hon will play Italian Lucrezia Stefanini after downing Frenchwoman Amandine Hesse 6-2 6-3.

But Arina Rodionova lost 6-2 6-1 to German veteran Laura Siegemund and Kim Birrell bowed out with a 6-4 6-3 defeat to Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska.

Daria Saville, playing on an injury-protected ranking in her comeback from a torn ACL, is the only Australian so far in the Wimbledon main draw after Monday's withdrawal of two-time quarter-finalist Ajla Tomljanovic with a season-wrecking knee injury.

In other notable qualifying encounters, former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin beat fellow America Irina Falconi Hartman 6-3 6-2, while Canada's 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard crashed out in the first round 6-4 7-5 to Belgian Greet Minnen.

Three Aussie men will also continue their qualifying pushes on Wednesday.

James Duckworth has a second-round meeting with Frenchman Harold Mayot, Marc Polmans plays American Zachary Svajda and Rinky Hijikata is up against Chile's Tomas Barrios Vera.

Duckworth, Polmans and Hijikata are hoping to boost Australia's eight-strong contingent in the Wimbledon men's singles main draw.

Queen's Club finalist Alex de Minaur is seeded 16th while last year's runner-up Nick Kyrgios will be unseeded if he lines up after playing only one match all year because of a knee injury.

The other Australians in Friday's draw will be Max Purcell, Chris O’Connell, Jordan Thompson, Jason Kubler, Alexander Vukic and Alexei Popyrin.

License this article

What is AAPNews?

For the first time, Australian Associated Press is delivering news straight to the consumer.

No ads. No spin. News straight-up.

Not only do you get to enjoy high-quality news delivered straight to your desktop or device, you do so in the knowledge you are supporting media diversity in Australia.

AAP Is Australia’s only independent newswire service, free from political and commercial influence, producing fact-based public interest journalism across a range of topics including politics, courts, sport, finance and entertainment.

What is AAPNews?
The Morning Wire

Wake up to AAPNews’ morning news bulletin delivered straight to your inbox or mobile device, bringing you up to speed with all that has happened overnight at home and abroad, as well as setting you up what the day has in store.

AAPNews Morning Wire
AAPNews Breaking News
Breaking News

Be the first to know when major breaking news happens.


Notifications will be sent to your device whenever a big story breaks, ensuring you are never in the dark when the talking points happen.

Focused Content

Enjoy the best of AAP’s specialised Topics in Focus. AAP has reporters dedicated to bringing you hard news and feature content across a range of specialised topics including Environment, Agriculture, Future Economies, Arts and Refugee Issues.

AAPNews Focussed Content
Subscription Plans

Choose the plan that best fits your needs. AAPNews offers two basic subscriptions, all billed monthly.

Once you sign up, you will have seven days to test out the service before being billed.

AAPNews Full Access Plan
Full Access
AU$10
  • Enjoy all that AAPNews has to offer
  • Access to breaking news notifications and bulletins
  • Includes access to all AAPNews’ specialised topics
Join Now
AAPNews Student Access Plan
Student Access
AU$5
  • Gain access via a verified student email account
  • Enjoy all the benefits of the ‘Full Access’ plan at a reduced rate
  • Subscription renews each month
Join Now
AAPNews Annual Access Plan
Annual Access
AU$99
  • All the benefits of the 'Full Access' subscription at a discounted rate
  • Subscription automatically renews after 12 months
Join Now

AAPNews also offers enterprise deals for businesses so you can provide an AAPNews account for your team, organisation or customers. Click here to contact AAP to sign-up your business today.

SEVEN DAYS FREE
Download the app
Download AAPNews on the App StoreDownload AAPNews on the Google Play Store