After an opening win on Sunday, Julia Grabher lost at the Miami Open presented by Itaú on Monday in the second and last qualifying round. But waiting and hoping for a place in the main competition as a lucky loser has paid off for the 26-year-old – and twice over. After Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova was the first on the waiting list to move up to the first main round on Tuesday, the Vorarlberg native is now also in the main draw of the highly endowed WTA 1000 hard court tournament ($8.8 million in prize money), right away the second round.
The reason for this is the short-term, late cancellation by the defending champion Iga Swiatek, who would have entered the round of 64 thanks to a bye. The current world number one has been suffering from rib problems for a few weeks as a result of an infection followed by a severe cough. The Pole’s bad luck is now the luck of Austria’s number one: Grabher (WTA 94) takes Swiatek’s place directly and thus plays in the second round instead of this one on Thursday against Claire Liu. The American (WTA 56) had benefited from the injury-related resignation of Katerina Siniakova at the score of 6: 3, 3: 3 for the Czech. Dominic Thiem is also in action for men on Thursday. The Lower Austrian (ATP 106) meets the tough Italian Lorenzo Sonego (ATP 59) in round one.
Grabher with a great chance of more
Incidentally, with the start of the second round match, Grabher initially only has ten additional WTA points in his pocket as for a start in the first main round. However, if she wins the first duel with Liu, she would receive the full 65 points for reaching the third round, also plus the 20 points for her opening qualifying success. This would allow her to jump into the top 80 in the world for the first time. Even getting into the round of 16 did not seem out of reach: the Japanese qualifier Nao Hibino (WTA 137) or the 25th seeded clay court specialist Martina Trevisan (WTA 24) from Italy are waiting for the winner.
How rarely does an Austrian actually benefit from skipping a round in the main draw of an ATP or WTA tournament as a lucky loser? A clue: In 2006, Stefan Koubek was twice as lucky, then won a round at the ATP event in Stuttgart and finally lost in the third round to his compatriot Oliver Marach. This should have been the last such case – until Miami 2023, almost 17 years later.
Here are all the results of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami.
Here are all the results of the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami.
