Australian hopes Priscilla Hon and Max Purcell have both scored first-round wins in the US Open 2022 qualifying competition.
New York, USA, 25 August 2022 | Matthew Trollope
Priscilla Hon became the fourth Australian woman to advance to the second round of US Open qualifying, after outlasting Asia Muhammad in New York today.
The Queenslander recovered from a slow start to record a 2-6 6-3 6-4 triumph over the American at Flushing Meadows.
Hon joins compatriots Maddison Inglis, Astra Sharma and Kimberly Birrell in the second round, after that trio won their opening matches yesterday.
> READ: Aussies make promising starts in US Open qualifying
Inglis and Sharma’s dramatic three-set matches had crossed Hon’s mind as she completed victory in two hours and 11 minutes.
“Seeing the scores, they were down in tiebreaks, and then up, and it just shows you that tennis is never over. You never know what’s going to happen,” said Hon, who has won four of her past five matches.
“Even if you’re losing, you can always come back. And if you’re winning, you gotta stay on it.”
A turning point came deep in the second set, when Hon won a lengthy rally to earn a break point, which she converted to take a 5-3 lead.
And she staved off another break point early in the second set before breaking Muhammad in the very next game, and broke again later in the set to earn an opportunity to serve for the match.
She played aggressive, purposeful tennis to arrive at 40-0 and three match points, and sealed victory two points later.
“In previous matches so far I’ve done pretty well to close out on serve, so I feel like I’ve just got a bit of confidence coming into it, knowing that I have done it multiple times now, and just to back myself,” Hon said.
“I felt it a bit, (in the second set) it was turning, like I was getting momentum. But in the first set I just was not comfortable, I did not feel very confident at all. And so it was nice to get that out of the way and be able to turn it around.”
After losing in the first round of WTA Toronto qualifying to fellow Aussie Ellen Perez, Hon won three matches in straight sets to advance to the second round of the Vancouver WTA 125K event as a qualifier.
And she carried that momentum with her into New York, where she next faces 16-year-old Czech Sara Bejlek for a place in the final round of qualifying.
“Toronto was (a case of) I didn’t know how to play tennis (smiling), and…
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