Montreal teen loses qualifier at Aussie Open

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime fell short in his bid to advance into the main draw of the Australian Open, falling 7-6 (4), 6-3 to American Christopher Eubanks in a second-round qualifying match Thursday.

The 18-year-old Auger-Aliassime, seeded second in the qualifying tournament, never had a break opportunity against his American opponent and failed to defend the only break point he faced in the match, which took one hour, 15 minutes to complete. Eubanks had 11 aces to Auger-Aliassime’s 10 and hit 24 winners to the Canadian’s 18.

Peter Polansky of Toronto won his second-round qualifying match Thursday against Slovenian Blaz Rola, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3.

Earlier, Canadian Bianca Andreescu advanced to the second round of the qualifiers when her opponent Katie Swan retired from their first-round match.

The 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won the first set 6-1 and her British opponent withdrew before the second set. Andreescu converted on three of seven break points and had eight winners to Swan’s five.

Andreescu, coming off her first WTA Tour finals appearance at the ASB Classic in New Zealand Sunday, began this week ranked No. 107.

She stunned former world No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams before dropping a three-set decision to 14th-ranked Julia Goerges in the championship match in Auckland. That run pushed Andreescu’s rankings up 45 spots.

Toronto’s Katherine Sebov was ousted in straight sets in her first qualifying match earlier Wednesday. The 20-year-old fell 6-1, 6-4 to Jessika Ponchet of France.

Brayden Schnur was the second Canadian of the day to get knocked from the qualifying bracket. The Pickering, Ont., player fell 6-4, 6-3 to the 176th-ranked Kamil Majchrzak of Poland. Schnur is No. 197.