The tough journey of Julia Riera, who is on the verge of playing her first Slam at the Australian Open

One victory away from realizing a great dream. Giulia Riera. The 21 year old from Pergamin, 123rd in the world ranking, defeated the Frenchwoman 6-4, 6-2. Elsa Jacquemot176th, and made it to the third round of qually of the Australian Open. And if in that case he beat the American Katie Volynets103rd, she will enter the main draw of the Oceanic Grand Slam, which would be the first of her short and promising career.

Riera approached last year with the idea of ​​being able to compete in the qualifiers of the most important tournaments on the calendar. She did it in two, Wimbledon and the US Open, but in none of them did it go beyond the second wheel. For 2024 it has raised the bar and has set itself the goal of reaching main extractions. And on her first big date, she was one step away from making it happen.

The woman from Buenos Aires experienced a very positive 2023. At the end of May, after being excluded from the ranking Roland GarrosRiera entered directly into the Rabat WTA250, taking advantage of the fact that many of the players above her in the rankings have chosen to play the qualifying phase this week in Paris. And in her debut on the major women’s tennis circuit, she surprised by reaching the semi-finals.

A few months later he won two bronze medals in the Pan American Games Santiago 2023in singles and doubles, with Lourdes Carle as a companion. And after starting the season outside the top 250, he finished it in 139th place.

Earlier this year it extended its positive record. Inside WTA Brisbanehe passed the qualification and reached the round of 16 by defeating the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, 21st in the world, in what was the most important victory of her career, if we talk about her rival’s ranking. She didn’t make it to the quarterfinals (she lost to the Czech Linda Noskova)but he managed to make another leap in the rankings and get closer to the top 100, his other goal for 2024.

This great gift is a reward for a player who has been fighting for a long time. As with many Argentine rackets, the lack of sponsors and financial resources meant that everything cost double. So much so that in 2015, at just 13 years old, tired of training so much and not being able to travel much to compete, she hung up her racket. The following year, a call from Daniele Orsanicothen Director of Development of AATit motivated her to start over.

The return wasn’t easy either. In 2021, for example, he was left without a sponsor to support a trip to Europe in which he had several tournaments scheduled. To help her, His family organized a lottery with 2,000 peso numbers and raffled off a weekend for two people in Merlo, San Luis. But Julia never gave up and today she is one step away from playing her first Grand Slam and making a dream come true.

The good performance of the woman from Pergamin in the Australian tour is the highlight, perhaps the only one, of this start of the year for Argentine tennis, which is adding more disappointments than joys.

At ATP level, the Albiceleste rackets have not yet managed to celebrate a single victory. The latest defeat came on Tuesday evening, with the fall of Francisco Cerúndolo on debut AucklandATP250. The player from Buenos Aires, 22nd in the ranking, was also quickly eliminated in Hong Kong.

In the qually from Australia, Riera is the only one still competing in the women’s team. In the fall on Tuesday Solana Sierrathis Wednesday the Martina Capurro (151st), who lost to the Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva (152nd) 6-3 and 6-0.

Meanwhile, only three of the twelve national teams entered in the men’s draw reached the second round. Santiago Rodríguez Tavern (207th), who beat the French Antoine Escoffier (170th) 6-4 and 7-6 (8-6) and will now clash with the Hungarian Zsombor Piros (127th); Camilo Ugo Carabelli (140th), who will clash in the round of 16 with the Italian Riccardo Bonadio (222nd); AND Francisco Comesaña (123rd), who will face the Hungarian Mate Valkusz (214th) on that occasion.

This Wednesday, Nicola Kicker (511th) fell to Kazakh Beibit Zhukayev (188th) 6-1 and 6-4 and Andrea Collarini (227th), 7-6 (7-5) and 6-3 against the Frenchman Harold Mayot (159th). They were thus added to the list of those eliminated, in which they already were Facundo Bagnis, Mariano Navone, Roman Burruchaga, Marco Trungelliti, Juan Manuel Cerúndolo, Tiago Pull AND Diego Schwartzmannwhich will put an end to a streak of almost ten years and 36 consecutive participations in the Slams.