Daniil Glinka through to Australian Open qualifying round two, Mark Lajal out
Estonia's tennis players saw mixed fortunes in qualifying for the Australian Open, which began early Monday Estonian time.
Top men's player Mark Lajal is out of the first Grand Slam of the year, but Daniil Glinka, who had a good season in 2025, won his first match.
This was the first time two Estonian men's players had been in qualifying for a Grand Slam since the restoration of independence.
Now ranked 196th in the world, Glinka, 25, faced Frenchman Clement Tabur, ranked just 10 spots below him. Tabur took the tightly contested opening set 7:5. In set two, Glinka earned an early break to go up 2:0, only for the Frenchman to level things at 3:3. The Estonian then raised his game, however, winning three consecutive games to take the set and force a decider.
In that decider, Glinka broke to lead 3:1, but Tabur again fought back to draw level. The players then held their serves, with Glinka ahead, until the Estonian secured his seventh break at 5:4 to seal the set and, with it, a 5:7, 6:3, 6:4 victory.
Glinka hit 12 aces and committed two double faults, while Tabur recorded two aces and four double faults. Glinka won 61 percent of points on his first serve (compared with Tabur's 67 percent) and 51 percent on his second serve (Tabur 36 percent). Glinka created 14 break points and converted half of them, while fending off eight of his opponent's 13 chances. The Estonian hit 26 winners and made 30 unforced errors; Tabur finished with 28 winners and 33 unforced errors.
Glinka will face 21-year-old Frenchman Luca van Assche (ATP 164), who defeated Tunisian Moez Echargui (ATP 134) in the opening round, in round two of qualifying.
Meanwhile, Lajal (ATP 149) faced Italy's Francesco Passaro, who he had beaten in qualifying at Wimbledon last year. Passaro won the first set 7:6 (4) and secured the only break of the second set at 4:4, going on to claim a 6:4 win.
Over the course of the 90-minute match, Lajal hit six aces and also committed five double faults, to Passaro's nine and zero. Lajal earned two break points and converted one of them, while Passaro converted two of five.
One other Estonian is competing in Melbourne, Ingrid Neel. As a doubles specialist, she has not had to go through qualifying for the women's doubles category.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kristjan Kallaste
