Aussie wildcard Maddison Inglis fights back from brink to make Australian Open third round

Kieran Francis

Aussie wildcard Maddison Inglis fights back from brink to make Australian Open third round image

Aussie wildcard Maddison Inglis has continued her dream run at the Australian Open with a comeback win against USA's Hailey Baptiste to progress to the third round.

The 24-year-old, who had never won a match at a Grand Slam prior to this tournament, was down a break in the final set before fighting back to win 7-6(4) 2-6 6-2 in two hours and seven minutes on Margaret Court Arena.

Inglis will now face the winner of the match between Estonia's Kaia Kanepi and Czech Republic's Marie Bouzkova on Saturday.

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Prior to the Australian Open, Inglis had accrued around AU$700,000 in prizemoney in her career, but will now pocket at least $221,000 for reaching the third round, with the third-round match against Kanepi or Boukova looking winnable also.

Inglis won the first set against qualifier Baptiste in a tiebreaker before the American hit back with a brilliant second set to level the contest.

When Baptiste went 2-0 up in the third set, it looked like the writing was on the wall for Inglis, but the Australian wrestled back control and put her foot down.

Inglis won six consecutive games to win the match, as Baptiste began to struggle physically in the latter stages of the set.

"This is so special," Inglis said post-match. "Playing on this court and in front of this crowd and now I'm in the third round, I just can't believe it at the moment.

"It was insane. This was the best match and this (Margaret Court Arena) is my favourite court - the best court I've ever played on. The crowd was just insane today."

Inglis' first Australian Open was in 2016 as an 18-year-old, where she was bundled out in straight sets by 21st seed Ekaterina Makarova.   

After three failed attempts at qualifying for a Grand Slam, she next reached the main draw at the 2020 French Open, where she was beaten in straight sets by 27th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.

However, Inglis did take a set off 24th seed Magda Linette at the 2020 US Open, before going out in that first-round match.

Her last Grand Slam appearance came 12 months ago at the 2021 Australian Open, where she lost in straight sets to fourth seed and 2020 champion Sofia Kenin.

 

 

 

 

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.