Open ends for Coast hopefuls

THE Australian Open dreams of Gold Coast teenagers Kimberly Birrell and Sara Tomic have been dashed for at least another 12 months.

The pair were both knocked out in the opening round of qualifying yesterday by higher-ranked opponents.

Birrell, who drew praise for her Grand Slam debut in Melbourne two years ago against Czech star Karolina Pliskova, battled hard but couldn’t find a way past Xinyun Han of China.

Han, the 21st seed in the qualifying draw with a world ranking of 134, won 7-6 3-6 6-3 in a seesawing encounter.

Coincidentally, it was Han who along with America’s Christina McHale had stopped Birrell and Jarmila Wolfe from nabbing the Hobart International doubles title in the final of the 2016 event.

Birrell’s loss came after Tomic’s hopes of a maiden Australian Open main draw berth had been abruptly ended in a 7-5 6-2 loss to Russian young gun Sofya Zhuk.