24-year-old Destanee Aiava earned a brilliant result in the final round of Australian Open qualifying, defeating Germany’s 23rd seed Eva Lys in a gripping three-set battle.
Aiava stormed out of the blocks with a double break to secure a 4-0 lead in the first set, using a variety of powerful baseline play with drop shots that left the German guessing.
The world No.195 kept stepping into the court, taking time away from Lys to close out the first set 6-1 in just over half an hour.
However, Lys quickly changed the momentum in the second set, swiftly moving to a 5-2 lead. Despite Aiava fending off two set points on serve, Lys kept her composure to convert the third to capture the second set.
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Aiava managed to save two break points in the second game of the third, and both women fought hard to hold serve until 4-4. The crowd chanted, "Let’s go Destanee!" on Court 3 as they willed the Melbournian on amidst the heat of the battle.
She managed to capitalise on her third break point with incredible grit to break Lys and take a 5-4 lead, with Aiava confidently holding serve to take out the match, only requiring one match point to book her ticket into the main draw.
After the match, Aiava shared a beautiful embrace with her mother in the stands, exhibiting how much this performance meant to her.
Elsewhere, Argentina’s 19th seed Julia Riera beat Aussie Maddison Inglis 6-4, 1-6, 2-6 in the final round of qualifying.
Inglis started the match strong, breaking Riera in the very first game as she pierced deep into Riera's backhand, utilising controlled aggression to step into the court and put pressure on the Argentinian.
Although she held to love to take the first set 6-4, Inglis was unable to transfer the momentum from the first set for the rest of the match.
Riera started using her consistency and variety to force errors from the racquet of Inglis and ran away with the second set. The Argentinian proved too solid from the back of the court, wrapping up the encounter in one hour and 36 minutes.
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