Olivia Ryan and Noami McKenzie are winners in the Tennis Australia Ballarat Open Platinum AMT even before stepping on the court.
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Each was elevated into the women’s open singles main draw after the withdrawal of top seeds Irina Ramialison from France and Ballarat’s Zoe Hives with injury.
Ryan and McKenzie had been set to step out in Tuesday’s qualifiying rounds before locking in spots in the 16-strong main draw.
Ryan faces fourth seed Masa Jovanovic and McKenzie will meet a qualifier.
There are four places for qualifiers in each of the men’s and women’s open singles.
The men’s qualifiers began with a capacity 64 players, women’s 39 and boys’ 18/unde 29.
The men’s qualifiers will face top seed Jacob Grills, third seed Lucas Vuradin, Mustafa Ibraimi and Josh Charlton.
A 23-year-old Victorian, Grills is ranked 21 in Australia and goes into the Ballarat after losing in the opening round of the Australian Open wildcard play-offs.
He was also a semi-finalist in the Darwin International late last month. This followed a win in the Cairns International and Cairns Open semi-final appearance.
New women’s open top seed Maddison Inglis also contested the Australian Open wildcard play-offs.
