Australian Open qualifiers: Harriet Dart and Billy Harris are one win away from Melbourne main draw


British duo Harriet Dart and Billy Harris reached the final round of qualifying for the Australian Open, but Heather Watson lost at Melbourne Park.

Third seed Dart, who recently dropped from the top 100 players in the world, struggled to beat young Australian Tayla Preston 6-7 (7-9), 6-1, 6-2.

Harris, the last Briton remaining in the qualifiers, needed only 70 minutes to beat Spaniard Carlos Taberner 6-1, 6-2.

But Watson was disappointed after her 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 defeat to American Varvara Lepchenko.

Dart will face Japan's Nao Hibino on Thursday, while Harris, who made his Grand Slam main draw debut at Wimbledon last year, will play Poland's Kamil Majchrzak.

British Francesca Jones is looking forward to joining Dart and Harris in the final round of qualifying when she faces Swiss Jill Teichmann later on Wednesday.

Players must win three qualifying matches to reach the main draw for the tournament, which begins on Sunday.

Katie Poulter, Emma Raducano, Sunay Kartal, Jodi Berg, Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley all have direct entry into the main singles draw.



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