IRELAND’S JAMES MCGEE is now only one step away from reaching the main draw at the Australian Open after his victory in today’s second qualifying round over France’s Vincent Millot.
The Dubliner won in straight sets against his French opponent, 6-2 6-4, as he followed up on Wednesday’s win over Matija Pecotic of Croatia.
The success keeps 29-year-old McGee’s dream alive of making the main draw at a Grand Slam event, for what would be only the second time in his career after he previously featured in the US Open in 2014.
It was Millot who got off to the best start today to win the opening game. However McGee bounced back to win the next game and then broke Millot’s serve twice in the opening set. He went on to win the set 6-2 on his own serve.
The Castleknock native started the second set slowly and trailed 3-1 after Millot broke his serve in the fourth game. However he responded impressively to counter by breaking Millot’s serve and then won the next three games himself.
The French man did draw level at 4-4 before McGee closed out the match successfully to claim the second set 6-4.
McGee will now face Australian Blake Mott in the final round. He will be hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s setback when he lost out at the final hurdle of the Australian Open qualifying, suffering a straight sets loss to German Daniel Brands.
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