Pratt and Arthurs advance

Wayne Arthurs and Nicole Pratt both advanced in straight sets overnight and are now the sole remaining Australians in the French Open qualifying tournament.

Arthurs defeated John Van Lottum of the Netherlands 7-6(2) 6-3, while [21] Pratt was too experienced for 24-year-old Frenchwoman Julie Coin 6-2 6-2.

Tonight Pratt will face Sweden’s Hanna Nooni, who defeated Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia 7-5 6-4 in the first round of qualifying. Nooni, aged 22, achieved her best results in recent months with two semifinal appearances at challenger tournaments – one at St Paul, Minnesota in late February and at the Kia International in Canberra in mid-March.

Arthurs is not scheduled to play tonight, with 17 men’s second round matches to be completed on day three of qualifying.

No.23 seed Peter Luczak, who only recently returned to the circuit after several weeks on the sidelines due to illness, was unable to match the Australian Open 2006 junior champion Alexandre Sidorenko of France, going down 6-0 6-3.

Sophie Ferguson fought hard against [2] Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic, taking the first set before being defeated 4-6 6-3 6-2, while Casey Dellacqua was out-played by [20] Yulia Beygelzimer of the Ukraine 6-2 6-4.

The French Open main draw starts this Sunday.

Australian Players’ Head-to-Heads: Qualifying Day Three

[21] Nicole Pratt (QLD) versus Hanna Nooni (SWE)
First meeting

Related Article:

Two Aussies progress in French Open Qualifying (Wed May 24)