Jamaican bows into action in Open qualifiers
DUSTIN Brown begins his long trek towards rewriting the history books of world tennis as he takes aim at lifting the Australian Open title, the first Grand Slam of the year.
Brown, 25, has been placed in Section Two of the first round in the men’s singles qualifiers and will open his account today on Court 13 against Ivo Klec of Slovakia.
The world 143-ranked Brown, who is seeded at No 19 in the qualifiers, is expected to get by his unseeded Slovakian opponent, who is ranked
number 331.
The Jamaican top seed then faces Guillaume Rufin of France or Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer, ranked 173 and 196, respectively.
Brown, a 6’5″ German-born Jamaican who sports dreadlocks hairstyle, had an impressive 2009 as he soared up the ATP rankings by 335 places.
He ended the year at 144th and has moved up a notch this month after reaching to the qualifying finals of the Chennai Open in India.
The success of the Jamaican, who is from the second city of Montego Bay, earned him an invitation to the Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific where defending champion Rafael Nadal and world number one Roger Federer are the main contenders. The Australian Open serves off January 18 following the main draw this Friday.