Liam Broady, Paul Jubb and Yuriko Miyazaki progress in French Open qualifying
British trio Liam Broady, Paul Jubb and Yuriko Miyazaki all claimed victories in the first round of qualifying at the French Open.
Jubb made a winning debut in his first grand slam qualifier, edging a very tight contest against American Christopher Eubanks 6-2 6-7 (6) 7-6 (4) at Roland Garros.
Miyazaki, known as Lily, switched allegiance from Japan to Britain in March having lived in London since the age of 10 and also claimed her first slam victory, beating 26th seed Ylena In-Albon 6-3 6-3.
What a FIGHTING win@PaulJubb3 defeated Christopher Eubanks 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(4) in the opening round of #FrenchOpen qualifying#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/qkpF4GJ5M3
— LTA (@the_LTA) May 17, 2022
Broady is a veteran of such stages and successfully came through qualifying at the French Open two years ago and Australian Open earlier this season.
He overcame the loss of the second set in an otherwise dominant performance to see off Argentinian Renzo Olivo 6-0 4-6 6-0 in one of the three victories needed to reach the main draw.
There was disappointment, though, for Katie Swan and another Parisian debutant, Ryan Peniston, who both went out at the first hurdle.
Peniston, who has made impressive progress up the rankings to 199, lost 6-2 6-2 to Andrey Kuznetsov while Swan was beaten 6-3 6-2 by 10th seed Viktoriya Tomova.
Well played 👏
Gian Marco Moroni takes care of business to eliminate Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 7-6(4)#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/gCxg0zImMJ
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 17, 2022
A remarkable run ended, meanwhile, when 40-year-old Feliciano Lopez was beaten 6-1 7-6 (4) by Gian Marco Moroni.
Lopez had made a record 79 consecutive appearances in the main draws of grand slams dating back to the French Open 20 years ago.
The Spaniard will be missing this time, though, as will last year’s runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The Russian, who was beaten by Barbora Krejcikova in her first grand slam final 12 months ago, has been struggling with a knee injury and announced on Tuesday that she will not play again this season.
Pavlyuchenkova wrote on social media: “After rehabbing for months this year and only played at three events, the last two tournaments has showed me that the pain was still there and I wasn’t ready, so I have decided to take more time and come back stronger next year.”