MELBOURNE, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Wei Sijia has reached the main draw at a grand slam tournament for the first time after winning her third and final qualifying match for the Australian Open.
Wei came back from a set down to beat Serbia's Nina Stojanovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(9) in a two-hour and 52-minute epic at Melbourne Park on Thursday.
It means that the 21-year-old will play in the women's singles draw at a grand slam for the first time in her career at the 2025 Australian Open, which starts on Sunday.
Wei's composure in the big points proved decisive in the match.
Trailing 5-4 in the third set 10-point tiebreak, the Chinese player hit the only second serve ace of the match to level the scores.
At 8-8, she hit a forehand winner straight down the line to set up her first match point opportunity, which was denied by Stojanovic.
With the majority of the crowd supporting Wei on a hot and windy afternoon in Melbourne, she capitalized on her second match point with a forehand winner.
Stojanovic had earlier led the third set 4-2 before Wei equalized.
At 4-4, Stojanovic had a break point opportunity that would have put her in a position to serve for the match but lost consecutive points on backhand errors that were forced by Wei's play.
Each player hit 18 winners in the third set, but Wei hit only 11 unforced errors compared to Stojanovic's 16.
Wei's victory comes 12 months after she was beaten in the third round of qualifying for the 2024 Australian Open by Brenda Fruhvirtova. She also made the second round in qualifying for the French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open in 2024.
Her first round Australian Open opponent will be determined after the conclusion of the qualifying tournament. ■
