Canada’s Rebecca Marino easily clinched her place in the main draw at the French Open tennis tournament, beating Australia’s Seone Mendez 6-2, 6-0 in her third and final qualifying match on Friday.
The maple leaf athlete needed 55 short minutes to have the 223rd racket in the world.
Seeded ninth in the qualifying stage and 116th player on the WTA Tour, she brought to five the total number of representatives of the country who will be in singles action (apart from the juniors) at the French Open; Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Annie Fernandez on the women’s side, as well as Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov on the men’s side, will also be in action.
Marino broke five times on seven occasions and saved all four break points she had to defend. She outshot winners 17-4 and slammed all five aces in the match.
The identity of her rival in the first round was not yet known in the morning.