Jones, 16, leads Australian charge for Wimbledon places
Emerson Jones, Australia's junior world No.1, has cleared the first hurdle on the way to lining up in the main draw at Wimbledon next week.
The Gold Coast world No.209, who reached the Australian Open and Wimbledon junior finals last year, progressed after a topsy-turvy encounter in the first qualifying round for the Championships on Tuesday.
Jones, who turns 17 during the second week of Wimbledon, sprung a 6-1 0-6 6-0 defeat of world No.91 Antonia Ruzic in a match that lasted one hour and 23 minutes.
But it was a day of mixed fortunes for her compatriots. Of the 10 Australians who took to the Roehampton courts for the first day of women's qualifying, precisely half the number survived.
Starting the morning out right 💪Young guns Talia Gibson and Emerson Jones win their #Wimbledon qualifying first round matches simultaneously at Roehampton on Day 2.#GoAussies pic.twitter.com/WBlbWbSsWr
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) June 24, 2025
The other winners were Destanee Aiava, Talia Gibson, Priscilla Hon and Arina Rodionova.
But there was a quick ending for Daria Saville, Maddison Inglis, Lizette Cabrera, Taylah Preston and Astra Sharma.
Players will have to come through three qualifying matches at the venue 5km from the All England Club to nail down one of the coveted 16 places in the singles draw for the famous tournament, which opens on Monday.
Making the main draw will guarantee each qualifier at least a Stg 66,000 ($A137,000) pay-out even if she loses in the first round.
Jones will be joined in the next round by Aiava, who reached the second round of the Australian Open in January. The Melbourne 25-year-old overcame Petra Marcinko 6-4 5-7 6-3.
Brisbane's Hon also required three sets to subdue Elena Pridankina 7-5 3-6 6-1, while there were straight-sets victories for Gibson, who beat Andrea Lazaro Garcia 6-3 6-3, and the Russian-born Rodionova, who overcame Xinyu Gao 6-3 7-5
The main Australian casualty was another Russian-born hope, Saville. The 31-year-old reached the third round at Wimbledon in 2018 but could not hold off Hungarian Panna Udvardy, who triumphed 7-6 6-1.
Inglis battled all the way before subsiding 6-2 3-6 7-5 (12-10) to Petra Marcic. Cabrera also put up a three-set struggle but lost out 6-4 2-6 6-3 to Anastasia Zakharova.
Sharma bowed out 6-4 7-6 (7-3) to Valentina Ryser while Preston came up short against Julia Riera, losing 6-4 6-2.
The main surprise of the day was French Open semi-finalist Loïs Boisson's 6-2 6-7 (1-7) 6-4 elimination by No.197-ranked Carson Branstine, of Canada.
Boisson soared from No.361 to No.65 after her deep run at Roland-Garros in her Grand Slam main draw singles debut, and was top-seeded in the Wimbledon qualifying draw.
Being denied a wild card into the Wimbledon main draw provoked criticism in her native France.
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