Lorenzi Begins Chase For Australian Open Main Draw

Italian Paolo Lorenzi still dreams of Grand Slam glory at age 38. The No. 12 seed and oldest player in this year’s Australian Open qualifying draw took a first step on Tuesday towards his eighth main draw appearance in Melbourne with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Spaniard Adrian Menendez-Maceiras.

Several Aussie players delighted the local crowd by winning their opening-round qualifying matches, including Max Purcell, Aleksandar Vukic and Luke Saville. Vukic scored the upset of the day by dispatching No. 11 seed Thomas Fabbiano of Italy 7-6(4), 6-2.

Other notable players to advance on the opening day of qualifying include No. 7 seed Denis Kudla of the United States, No. 10 seed Norbert Gombos of Slovakia and No. 13 seed Gianluca Mager of Italy.

Click here to view all the results from Day 1 of qualifying.