Jones narrowly missed out on the main draw after dropping one place in the world rankings
US Open 2025
Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 24 August-7 September
Coverage: Live radio commentaries across 5 Live Sport and BBC Sounds, plus live text commentaries on the BBC Sport website & app
Top seed Francesca Jones has taken a step towards reaching the US Open main draw, securing a victory in her opening qualifier. However, Heather Watson was among four British players who faced defeat on Tuesday.
Jones, the British number four, defeated Slovakia’s Viktoria Hruncakova with a score of 6-3, 6-4. She is set to compete against Ekaterine Gorgodze of Georgia on Wednesday, vying for a spot in the US Open main draw for the first time in her career.
Despite reaching a career-high ranking of 86th in the world since the US Open cut-off, Jones has never gained direct entry to a Grand Slam based on her ranking and narrowly missed out this year.
The 24-year-old showcased her serving prowess with six aces during the one-hour, 22-minute match, achieving an impressive 87% win rate on her first serves.
In contrast, former British number one Heather Watson was defeated by Gorgodze with a score of 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, marking her fourth consecutive year of failing to reach the main draw.
Harriet Dart, the British women’s number seven, secured a victory against Romanian Anca Todoni, who is ranked 112 places above her, with a score of 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (10-6).
On the men’s side, British number five Jan Choinski lost to Argentina’s Andrea Collarini with a score of 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, while Oliver Crawford defeated Alex Bolt of Australia with a score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
George Loffhagen was defeated by Jason Kubler with a score of 4-6, 5-7, and 22-year-old Jack Pinnington Jones lost with a score of 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (14-12).
Jodie Burrage initiated her qualifying campaign with a win on Monday, but British number five Dan Evans was eliminated, resulting in his absence from the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time since 2018.
Six British players are scheduled to compete in the second round of qualifying on Wednesday:
Jodie Burrage v Arantxa Rus
Jay Clarke v Arthur Cazaux
Billy Harris v Mikhail Kukushkin
Harriet Dart v Ayana Akli
Oliver Crawford v Garrett Johns
Fran Jones v Ekaterine Gorgodze
Players must secure three victories in the qualifying rounds to advance to the main singles draws for the tournament, which commences on Sunday.
Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie, and Jacob Fearnley have gained direct entry into the men’s singles, while Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter, and Sonay Kartal are in the women’s.
Live scores, results and order of play
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