By Sven Groeneveld
This is the 3rd round and the day where you can win your ticket to the main draw of the Australian Open!
Taro was first on so we had a hit at 9 am with Coppejans.
They changed Taro to a smaller court. Compared to the last two matches he now played on court 3! This court 3 is the toughest court as it is where all of the people pass by to go practice and go back to the player’s lounge so a lot of traffic. We knew this was going to be a big change and Elias had played there yesterday and had a great win. So long story short it just did not happen. Elias played extremely well and you have to give him all of the credit!
So after heading back to the hotel, we also decided to go to Melbourne no matter what would happen since Taro would be one of the top 4 lucky losers, with 2 spots available we just need a bit of luck to get drawn from these 4 players.
Instead of waiting around, we had lunch at the hotel, filled out our forms, and headed back to the courts to work some more on Taro’s game and get rid of the bad feeling!
I got the message from Taro at 18:38, and this is the best news we got in 2021! Taro and his team in Japan have worked so hard in the off-season and Taro has made some major changes and today just ran into a great player that played a great match. But to receive the news that he got onto the draw as a lucky loser, I am so happy for him!!!
Transportation desk.
Again the perfectly manicured trees.
Go to the link to see some great pictures of qualifying at the Aussie Open.
Tomorrow will be a full day in the room and we can’t practice (hence our decision to hit one more time today).
Our flight will leave at 5 AM and our transport will be at 1 am! The flight will be at 20% capacity and directly to Melbourne.