Harriet Dart one win from qualifying for Australian Open Harriet Dart moved to within one win of qualifying for the Australian Open, but Heather Watson’s hopes ended after a bright start.
By contrast, Dart lost just four points on her serve as she raced through the second set 6-1, breaking the Australian once more at the start of the deciding set.
Watson broke the American at the first time of asking to open a 3-0 lead in the first set, only for Lepchenko to level things up after a break of her own.
Dart lost her opening service game to trail 3-0, but broke back to level and took advantage of two double faults to break again for a 5-4 lead – starting a run of four straight breaks up to a tie-break.
The breaks continued throughout the tie-break, the British number four – ranked third in qualifying – saving four set points before going down 9-7.
