Six seeded and ten unseeded players made it through to the main Men’s Singles draw, while only five seeded players in the Ladies’ Singles draw endured, during the final qualifying round of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships on Thursday.
Taylor Dent and Kaia Kanepi emerged unharmed as the top seeds, with the big-serving American defeating Australian Matthew Ebden. Kanepi was victorious over Ajla Tomljanovic, losing only twelve games throughout the whole week. The other seeded players would gladly avoid being paired with Kanepi, an Estonian who just won on grass earlier this month at Birmingham. The Ladies’ Singles draw will be made on Friday.
Nicolas Mahut, currently seeded at number 27 was down two sets against number 13 seed Stefan Koubek, yet he fought back, winning in five sets. Mahut had toughed it out against Alex Bogdanovic just two days earlier, winning 24-22 in the end.
Australians did a fair job of representing, with Bernard Tomic and Carsten Ball (the number 19 seed) both getting through, and joining fellow Aussies Peter Luczak and Lleyton Hewitt in the main draw.
Ladies’ Toughing it out
Bethanie Mattek-Sands survived a three-setter against compatriot Julie Ditty, and Shenay Perry, another American also stayed strong against Severine Beltrame, who made it to the quarter-finals at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships.
Mirjana Lucic provided the most memorable success story of the qualifiers by defeating No.13 seed Michaella Krajicek. The Croatian Lucic reached the semi-finals over a decade ago at Wimbledon in 1999, yet due to personal problems coming up shortly afterwards was out of contention. Making her comeback years later in 2007, Lucic is absolutely thrilled to have made it through to the main draw.
“After so many years, every match I play is like winning Wimbledon for me," Lucic said. "I was so focused this week. I have a couple of strained muscles but I was fighting. I’m hard on myself all the time, but that just means that now I’m proud of myself, that I’ve gone from the smallest tournaments without getting any wild cards all the way to Wimbledon. I would drive by the main (Wimbledon) site every day and tell myself ‘I’m getting there, I’m getting there’, and now I’m going there!”
Lisa Whybourn is the last British player remaining in the qualifiers, but she fell at the final hurdle, and ended up losing to Andrea Hlavackova, 23-year-old from the Czech Republic. Although Whybourn gave it her all, the teenager was incapable of matching Hlavackova’s consistency and intensity. Considering that Hlavackova is the number 22 seed in the qualifiers and is ranked 237 places above Whybourn, it was hardly an upset to watch Whybourn be disqualified from the draw.
The third round proved to be an unconquerable challenge for Whybourn, and she was defeated by Hlavackova, whose physical strength was no match for Whybourn in the two set 6-1, 6-2 defeat. The qualifying rounds demonstrated an excellent effort from the Czech Hlavackova, who is making her first ever appearance at the Wimbledon Championships this year.
Men's Singles Qualifiers
The final list of the qualifiers for the Men’s Singles includes Taylor Dent, Jesse Witten, Brendan Evans, and Robert Kendrick from the USA, Martin Fischer from Austria, Ilija Bozolijac from Serbia, Australians Carsten Ball and Bernard Tomic, Croatian Ivan Dodig, Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, Marsel Ilhan from Turkey, Jesse Huta Galung from the Netherlands, German Tobias Kamke, Spaniard Guilermo Alcaide, Ricardas Berankis from Lithuania, and Rik De Voest from South Africa.
Ladies' Singles Qualifiers
The Ladies’ Singles side is comprised of the following draw: Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Shenay Perry from the US, Italian Romina Sarina Oprandi, Croatian Mirjana Lucic, Estonian Kaia Kanepi, Anastasiya Yakimova from Belarus, Hungarian Greta Arn, Kurumi Nara from Japan, Monica Niculescu from Romania, Nuria Llagostera Vives from Spain, Czech Andrea Hlavackova, and Eleni Daniilidou from Greece.
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