Of the four best Chilean tennis players, only two will be able to play in the men’s main draw of the Australian Open, after Tomás Barrios (107th) was eliminated in the second round of qualifying at the hands of the American Michael Zheng (174th) in two and a half hours of play.
As Nicolás Jarry (133°) suffered the same fate as Barrios, the only ones present at Melbourne Park will be Cristian Garin (80°) and Alejandro Tabilo (81°)who entered the main draw thanks to its ranking.
How did Tomás Barrios lose in the Australian qualy?
The Chilean tennis player had just defeated the Frenchman Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg (193rd) in the first round of the qualification in two sets, but he could not repeat the good result against Zheng even though he had many options.
Neighborhoods, in fact, He started by breaking his rival but then dropped serve twice to lose the first set. The Chilean won the second round with difficulty since he only won the tiebreak.
In the third set, the Chilanejo had a break point to go 3-2 up, but he couldn’t achieve it and, to make matters worse, His serve was broken twice and he ended up losing the set 6-2.
Now Barrios will return to Chile to play the Concepción Challenger and then the Davis Cup against Serbia.
When does the Australian Open start?
The first Grand Slam of the season starts this Sunday, January 18, with the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (1st) and the Italian Jannik Sinner (2nd), champion of the last two versions, as the main candidates.
The draw to find out Garin and Tabilo’s rivals will be this Thursday, January 15.
The Australian Open brings good memories to Chileans, since two national tennis players played in the final of the tournament: In 1998 Marcelo Ríos lost to Petr Korda and in 2007 Fernando González fell to Roger Federer.
As for Garin, his best performance was the third round in 2022, while Tabilo records a second round in 2020.
