Two Argentine tennis players, Marco Trungelliti and Román Burruchaga, were eliminated from the qualifying rounds of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season. According to the Argentine News Agency, the Santiago del Estero native was defeated by Portuguese Jaime Faria (151st) in the third and final qualifying round, 6-7 (5/7), 3-6, while “Burru” could not overcome Frenchman Arthur Gea (197th), who beat him 6-2, 6-3. While Burruchaga has no chance to qualify, Trungelliti still has an open door: as one of the five highest-ranked players to lose in that stage, he will be part of the lucky loser draw, and the withdrawal of a main draw player would give him a chance to qualify. Trungelliti's Australian dream, which began dreamily in 2026 when he was called up to represent Argentina in the Davis Cup for the first time at the age of 35, in addition to also having played in the past United Cup, seems to have come to an end. After adding wins over local player Philip Sekulic (519th) and Portuguese Henrique Rocha (158th), Trungelliti could not win against Faria in a match in excessively hot weather. In a close first set, with a break each, the set was decided in a tie-break in which the Argentine lost only two points on his serve, but it was enough for Faria to close the set with a smash. Faria's complaints came mainly during the aforementioned tie-break, where the 22-year-old player claimed that the stands, completely in favor of the Argentine, were talking during the points. In that context, Faria spent the rest of the match celebrating every point out loud, even those he won on his rival's errors, and making provocative gestures to the people who were cheering for the man born in Santiago del Estero. In the second set, motivated by the lack of support for him, Jaime Faria showed great tennis on the return: he broke the Argentine's serve four times and sealed the match with a cross-court passing shot that Trungelliti could not return with a volley. For his part, Román Andrés Burruchaga lost in the second round of Australian Open qualifying to Frenchman Arthur Gea and will have to wait at least another year to play in the main draw of said Grand Slam for the first time. Burruchaga, who seeks to consolidate himself in the ATP top 100 (he is currently 103rd), fell 6-2, 6-3 after a poor performance and was left without a chance to enter the main draw of the first 'Major' of the season. The key point in the match was effectiveness on break points, as Gea took advantage of the three he had, while Burruchaga wasted the six opportunities he generated. In this way, the Argentine continues to have bad luck in Grand Slam tournaments, where he could only play in the main draw of Roland Garros 2024, where he fell in the first round. Gea's opponent in the third and final round of qualifying will be Paraguayan Daniel Vallejo, who defeated Italian Federico Cina 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 early Wednesday morning. Ofner and one of the bloopers of the year During another of Wednesday's matches, Austrian Sebastian Ofner starred in one of the year's bloopers in his match against American Nishesh Basavareddy. After an even match, Ofner went up 7-1 in the third set tie-break and celebrated wildly, thinking he had already won. However, he had forgotten a detail: the tie-break in the deciding set is to 10 points, so he still needed three more to win the match. The worst came after, as Basavareddy staged a tremendous comeback to end up winning the tie-break 13-11 and thus secure qualification to the next qualifying stage, where he will face British player George Loffhagen. All Australian Open activity is covered by the Argentine News Agency. There are no more Argentine women in the women's qualifier As for the women's draw, Argentine players Lourdes Carlé and Jazmín Ortenzi lost their respective matches, so there are no more national representatives in the women's qualifier. Carlé fell in a tight match against Chinese player Yue Yuan 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4, while Ortenzi suffered a defeat against American Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-4.
