Fresh from her Australian Open Wildcard Play-off triumph, Australian Destanee Aiava has carried momentum to Brisbane International qualifying on Friday.
The 16-year-old Victorian handed last year’s surprise semifinalist, eighth seed Sarah Crawford, a bagel before progressing to the second round of qualifying with a 6-0 6-4 upset.
Two of Aiava’s fellow Australians also posted wins on Friday. Anastasia Rodionova saw off countrywoman Naiktha Bains 7-6(4) 6-3, while 19-year-old Queenslander Lizette Cabrera finished in a flurry to post a 4-6 6-1 6-0 result over American Julia Boserup.
The trio will aim to join Sam Stosur and Ash Barty in the main draw.
American Asia Muhammad brought Aussie wildcard Jaimee Fourlis’s run to an end with a 6-4 6-4 win, while Ukrainian sixth seed Kateryna Kozlova posted the same scoreline in seeing off another Aussie wildcard, Sara Tomic.
Kozlova’s countrywoman and top seed Kateryna Bondarenko eked out a narrow 7-5 4-6 7-6(6) result over Slovak Rebecca Sramkova, however second-seeded Frenchwoman Oceane Dodin fell at the first qualifying hurdle, 7-5, 7-5, to Serb Aleksandra Krunic. Third seed Su-Wei Hsieh went down to Austrian Barbara Haas.
Former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone was a set and a break up before her opponent, Ayumi Morita, retired hurt.