She may have withdrawn from the US Open wildcard play-off but it's for good reason - Priscilla Hon remains alive in the $100,000 ITF in Vancouver after advancing to the quarterfinals.
Vancouver, BC, Canada, 18 August 2017 | tennis.com.au
The 19-year-old Queenslander began the week in qualifying but now features in the last eight after beating 92nd-ranked Jana Cepelova of Slovakia, the tournament’s No.3 seed.
Hon, ranked No.354, will next line-up against Belgian Maryna Zanevska.
(Q) Priscilla Hon ¦º def. (3) Jana Cepelova ¸°6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals of Odlum Brown #VanOpen #tennis #vancouver pic.twitter.com/eRfDtvsP7N
— Odlum Brown VanOpen (@vanopentennis) August 17, 2017
However, Hon has become a victim of her own success, now forced to miss the Australian US Open women’s wildcard play-off which begins on Friday in New Haven.
No.1 seed Arina Rodionova, Hon’s opponent in the play-off, now receives a walkover into the semifinals of the eight-player knockout draw.
Hon won three rounds of qualifying in Vancouver, beating fellow Aussies Olivia Rogowska and Olivia Tjandramulia before overcoming Greece’s Valentini Grammatikopoulou.
She then recorded a first-round win in the main draw over Czech world No.121 Barbora Krejickova, who in May made her first WTA final in Nuremburg.
This is the first time Hon has ever contested an ITF event of this stature; the biggest ITF tournaments she had previously played were a handful of $60,000 events earlier in 2017, and she didn’t pass the first round at any of them.