US Open: Francesca Jones begins qualifiers with win

Top seed Francesca Jones took the first step to reaching the US Open main draw by winning her opening qualifier, but Heather Watson was among four Britons to lose on Tuesday.

British number four Jones beat Slovakia’s Viktoria Hruncakova 6-3 6-4. She will face Ekaterine Gorgodze of Georgia on Wednesday as she looks to reach the US Open main draw for the first time in her career.

Jones has never received direct entry to a Grand Slam through her ranking and narrowly missed out this time, despite having climbed to a career-high 86th in the world since the US Open cut-off point.

The 24-year-old served six aces in a match lasted one hour 22 minutes and notched an 87% win rate on her first serves.

Meanwhile, former British number one Watson was defeated 6-3 3-6 4-6 by Gorgodze as she failed to reach the main draw for a fourth successive year.

British women’s number seven Harriet Dart edged out Romanian Anca Todoni – who sits 112 places above her in the rankings – 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (10-6).

British men’s number five Jan Choinski lost 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to Argentina’s Andrea Collarini, but Oliver Crawford beat Alex Bolt of Australia 5-7 6-4 6-4.

George Loffhagen was beaten 4-6 5-7 by Jason Kubler, while 22-year-old Jack Pinnington Jones lost 6-3 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (14-12).

Jodie Burrage began her qualifying campaign with a win on Monday, but British number five Dan Evans was eliminated and will miss out on the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time since 2018.

There are six Brits in action on Wednesday in the second round of qualifying:

Players must win three matches in qualifying to advance to the main singles draws for the tournament, which begins on Sunday.

Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley have direct entry into the men’s singles, with Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal in the women’s.