{"id":689561,"date":"2026-01-11T19:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T19:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689561\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T19:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T19:59:13","slug":"katie-boulter-gets-australian-open-lifeline-as-brit-who-slept-in-a-van-among-11-hopefuls-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689561\/","title":{"rendered":"Katie Boulter gets Australian Open lifeline as Brit who slept in a van among 11 hopefuls | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Open<\/a> qualifying gets underway on Monday, and Katie Boulter<\/a> was expected to lead a pack of 12 Brits hunting a place in the main draw. Seeded No.22 in Melbourne Park last year, Boulter battled injuries and suffered a loss of form, and now sits outside the top 100.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Boulter, 29, found some form at this week\u2019s WTA 250 event in Auckland, reaching the last 16 before losing to top seed Elina Svitolina. Now working with Maria Sharapova\u2019s ex-coach, Michael Joyce, the world No.112 looked to be a dangerous opponent for anyone in the qualifying draw. Boulter was drawn to face Luisina Giovannini in the qualifying draw, which was made on Sunday. But there was confusion when she was removed from the field and replaced by Spanish alternate Marina Bassols Ribera just a few hours later.<\/p>\n

British No.4 Boulter was the first alternate for the main draw and there had been reports that Yafan Wang pulled out of the Australian Open<\/a>, allowing Boulter into the field without going through the preliminary rounds. But she remained in the qualifying field when the draw was made, and Australian Open organisers later moved Boulter directly into the main draw once the withdrawal had been confirmed.<\/p>\n

Harriet Dart and Mingge \u2018Mimi\u2019 Xu will compete in women\u2019s singles qualifying. Welsh teenager Xu made it into the preliminary rounds after former Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady withdrew.<\/p>\n

There are nine men in the men\u2019s qualifying field, spearheaded by Billy Harris, who proved himself at the recent United Cup. The world No.127 previously spent three years sleeping in a van while travelling around to compete at lower-level events – and he stepped up for Team GB after Jack Draper<\/a>\u2019s withdrawal.<\/p>\n

Harris beat Shintaro Mochizuki<\/a> and pushed 2023 Australian Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas<\/a> to three sets before losing 4-6 6-1 7-6.<\/p>\n

Former world No.3 Tsitsipas gave Harris high praise and said: \u201cHe put out an incredible performance. I haven\u2019t played such a high-quality match in a long time. He did absolutely great, pushing me to my limits. I think matches like that are great for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British No.5 earned his first Grand Slam main draw win at Wimbledon<\/a> last year, and spent the earlier years of his career travelling around Europe and sleeping in a Ford Transit van \u201cwith a bed in the back\u201d<\/a> to play in Futures tournaments.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his travels ahead of his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon in 2024, Harris previously said: \u201cDid quite a few laps around Europe. Dover to Calais quite a few times. It was good. For the Futures, there used to be 12 in a row in Belgium, I would go round, then Spain for a few in a row. Poland for nine in a row, for example.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt taught me a bit of resilience. You cannot just drive home when you are out there. You cannot fly home. Probably played more weeks in a row than most people would. But it\u2019s taught me to keep going, week to week, and the better weeks would come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former world No.21 Dan Evans<\/a> will also be fighting for a place in the main draw, nine years after he took out seventh seed Marin Cilic on his way to the fourth round. And Jan Choinski, Oliver Crawford, Arthur Fery, Jack Pinnington Jones, Ryan Peniston, George Loffhagen, and Jay Clarke round out the Brits in qualifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Open qualifying gets underway on Monday, and Katie Boulter was expected to lead a pack of 12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[91469,4723,208261,125853,39585,208266,208262,208264,125070,125854,1069,87211,208263,208265,79,1068,5838,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-689561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-arthur-fery","9":"tag-australian-open","10":"tag-australian-open-qualifying","11":"tag-billy-harris","12":"tag-dan-evans","13":"tag-george-loffhagen","14":"tag-harriet-dart","15":"tag-jack-pinnington-jones","16":"tag-jan-choinski","17":"tag-jay-clarke","18":"tag-katie-boulter","19":"tag-mimi-xu","20":"tag-oliver-crawford","21":"tag-ryan-peniston","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-tennis","24":"tag-tennis-news","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115878242833940429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}