Dart fights back to keep Australian Open dream alive

HARRIET DART kept her attempt to qualify for the Australian Open on track but fellow Britons Gabriella Taylor and Naomi Broady fell by the wayside.

Dart, the British No 4, battled past Chloe Paquet of France in three sets to move within two wins of the main draw.

Having taken the first set, things looked bleak for 22-yearold Dart when she lost the second and dropped serve in the opening game of the third. But the world No 132 fought back to seal a 6-3 4-6 6-2 victory in one hour and 53 minutes.

Taylor failed to progress to the second qualifying round after a bruising defeat to Kristie Ahn of the United States.

The 20-year-old lost the opening four games and dropped serve again in the seventh in a one-sided first set.

The second set got off to better start with Taylor breaking Ahn in the first game, but it proved to be a brief fightback as she bowed out 6-1 6-1.

Naomi Broady also fell at the first hurdle in her bid to qualify for the first grand slam event of the year.

The 28-year-old from Stockport dropped the first set against world No 158 Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium but took the second to level the match.

However Broady, the British No seven, eventually went down 6-4 3-6 6-3 in one hour and 36 minutes.

Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber got her Sydney International title defence off to a strong start with a straight-sets victory over Camila Giorgi.

The German world No 2 needed a tie-break to take the opener and went on to a 7-6 (3) 6-2 win to move into the quarter-finals.

Home favourite Ash Barty set up a second-round meeting with top seed and world No 1Simona Halep after beating Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-3.

Petra Kvitova, the 2015 Sydney champion, won her first-round match 6-1 7-5 against Aryna Sabalenka, and Sloane Stephens hit back to beat qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova 0-6 7-6 (3) 7-6 (3).

Kiki Bertens went straight through after former world No 1 Garbine Muguruza withdrew due to illness.

Caroline Garcia’s Australian Open preparations suffered a hiccup after she was beaten by unseeded Sofia Kenin in the first round of the Hobart International, losing 6-3 6-2 in 73 minutes.

Second seed Mihaela Buzarnescu lost 4-6 6-3 7-5 to Belinda Bencic and fourth seed Maria Sakkari lost 3-6 6-2 6-4 to qualifier Magda Linette.