Australian Open Day 2 qualifying recap

A quartet of Americans advanced to the second round of qualifying at the 2020 Australian Open on Wednesday before heavy rain halted play across Melbourne Park.

Ernesto Escobedo outlasted compatriot Mitchell Krueger, 2-6, 7-6, 7-6, on Court 7, and Chris Eubanks beat fellow American Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, 6-3, 7-6.

It was an impressive victory for 23-year-old Californian Escobedo, the world’s No. 223 player, who was down a set and a break. Escobedo (pictured above) saved three match points in the second-set tiebreak, including one on Krueger’s serve, and he was twice just two points away from losing in the third set.

Escobedo, who reached the second round of the main draw in Melbourne in 2017, will play either eighth-seeded Taro Daniel of Japan or Nikola Milojevic of Serbia in the second round.

On the women’s side, American No. 28 seed Allie Kiick beat Reka Jani, 7-5, 6-3, while Danielle Lao defeated Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay, 6-2, 7-6, in a match that lasted almost two-and-a-half hours.

On Wednesday, Kiick broke three times in the first set and twice more in the second, benefiting from Jani’s eight double faults and capitalizing on the fact that the Hungarian won just seven of 24 points on her second serve.

Kiick, who missed more than three years on tour between 2015 and 2017 while fighting skin cancer and mononucleosis and undergoing multiple knee surgeries, is looking to reach the main draw of a Slam for just the second time in her career.

She competed in the main draw of the 2017 US Open but has never been past the second round of the Australian Open. Kiick will play Xinyu Wang, who defeated Irina Falconi, in Round 2, and she could face either No. 5 seed Anna Kalinskaya of Russia or veteran Sara Errani of Italy in the final round.

The four Americans join seven other members of Team USA in the second of three qualifying rounds, with eight more U.S. players still to resume or start their opening matches.

Elsewhere on Day 2, Long Island native Noah Rubin fell to Hiroki Moriya of Japan, 7-6, 7-5, and Falconi lost to Wang of China, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6.

Still to play on Day 3 of qualifying are No. 10 seed Caty McNally, who faces fellow American Asia Muhammad; Sachia Vickery, who plays Gabriela Ce of Brazil; Robin Anderson, who faces Aussie wild card Storm Sanders; No. 21 seed Usue Arconada, who plays Elena Ruse of Romania; and Varvara Lepchenko, who meets Basak Eraydin of Turkey.

J.J. Wolf plays Zdenek Kolar of the Czech Republic, and No. 22 Bradley Klahn faces Viktor Troicki of Serbia.

Weather permitting, second-round qualifying action will also get underway, with Hailey Baptiste, Ann Li, Caroline Dolehide, Shelby Rogers, Francesca Di Lorenzo and Denis Kudla all scheduled to be in action.