Australian Open: Fonseca, Eubanks advance to final round of qualifying

NextGen ATP Finals champion Joao Fonseca advanced to the final round of qualifying at the Australian Open by beating Coleman Wong 6-0, 6-3 on Wednesday. Learner Tien, the NextGen runner-up, joined Fonseca at the last hurdle thanks to a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Juan Pablo Ficovich 6-4, 6-2.

There are plenty of other big names who are within one win of earning a place in the field of 128 at Melbourne Park. Former Wimbledon quarterfinalist Chris Eubanks advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Alejandro Moro Canas. No. 1 seed Dominik Koepfer, No. 6 Thiago Monteiro, No. 19 Billy Harris, No. 25 Mackenzie McDonald, Nikoloz Basilashvili, and Cristian Garin are also still alive.

Here are the matchups in the final round of men’s singles qualifying on Thursday:

(1) Dominik Koepfer vs. (WC) Blake Ellis
Terence Atmane vs. (28) Lukas Klein
Henrique Rocha vs. (32) Matteo Gigante
(4) Chris Eubanks vs. (26) Tristan Boyer
Francesco Passaro vs. Nikoloz Basilashvili
(6) Thiago Monteiro vs. Kimmer Coppejans
Gauthier Onclin vs. (25) Mackenzie McDonald
Aziz Dougaz vs. Borna Gojo
Mark Lajal vs. (17) Jaime Faria
Cristian Garin vs. (18) Hugo Dellien
Yasutaka Uchiyama vs. Mitchell Krueger
(12) Thiago Agustin Tirante vs. Joao Fonseca
Hady Habib vs. Clement Chidekh
(14) Kamil Majchrzak vs. (19) Billy Harris
Martin Landaluce vs. Dalibor Svrcina
(16) Learner Tien vs. (21) Jozef Kovalik

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.