Hon on target in title defence
Top seed Priscilla Hon joins six Australians in Bendigo quarterfinals, including qualifier Storm Sanders.
Bendigo, Victoria, 24 October 2019 | Asher Packman
Priscilla Hon continued her solid form at the Bendigo International on Thursday, defeating Belinda Woolcock in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals.
The top seed arrived in Bendigo hoping to emulate her title run last year and has thus far been largely untroubled.
“It got a bit windy today, but I like the courts here,” Hon, 21, said. The Queenslander will face Olivia Rogowska as they vie for a semifinal berth.
“I played her earlier in the year on the clay and she got me there,” Hon said of the experienced Victorian. “It will be interesting tomorrow to see how we go. We’ve beaten each other a couple of times before.”
There were some outstanding results for the Australians which now sees two all-Aussie quarterfinals on the schedule with qualifier Storm Sanders set to play second seed Lizette Cabrera – after both making light work of their opponents on Wednesday. Sanders was particularly impressive, ousting in-form American and recent Australian Pro Tour titlist Asia Muhammad, 6-1 6-0, in just 62 minutes. The West Australian is making her first professional singles appearance in nearly two years.
Victorian Destanee Aiava (No.4) and West Aussie Maddison Inglis (No.3) are also through and set to play unseeded Japanese duo Kyoka Okamura and Chihiro Muramatsu respectively.
Should she be successful, Hon will face the winner of Inglis and Muramatsdu to keep her title defence alive.
“I have had a pretty balanced year so far which I’m pretty happy about but, obviously, I can always do better,” Hon, the current world No.118, said. “I’m just taking it match by match but my goal is still to be top 100 by the end of the year.”
Live scores of all Australian Pro Tour events are available through www.tennis.com.au/protour/scores and for a live stream of selected events visit www.tennis.com.au/protour. For updates, follow @oztennisresults on Twitter.