Dart on track to hit bullseye in Australia

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

Dart, the British number four, 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-year-old Dart when she lost the second and dropped serve in the opening game of the third.

But the world number 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 number 158 Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium but took the second to level the match.

However Broady, the British number seven, eventually went down 6-4 3-6 6-3 in one hour and 36 minutes.

Meanwhile, defending champion Angelique Kerber saw off Camila Giorgi 7-6 (3), 6-2.

The world No.2 now faces a quarter-final against either No.5 seed Petra Kvitova or Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan in a rematch of last year’s three-set Australian Open fourth-round.