French Open: Liam Broady, Harriet Dart, Katie Boulter win qualifiers as Jack Draper storms into Lyon quarters

Four British players won in the first round of French Open qualifying on Tuesday, while Jack Draper progressed to the Lyon Open quarter-finals.

Liam Broady, Harriet Dart, Katie Boulter and Jan Choinski secured wins in the first qualifying round in Paris, while Draper’s superb straight-sets victory over fifth seed Miomir Kecmanovic sent him into the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 event in Lyon.

Broady jumped the first qualifying hurdle with a comeback win over French wild card Arthur Gea.

The 29-year-old Brit, seeded 28th in men’s qualifying in Paris, bounced back from dropping the opening set to win 4-6 6-4 6-3 in a match lasting almost two-and-a-half hours.

Broady creaked on serve with four double faults to just one ace, but overpowered his opponent with 25 winners and an 82% success rate at the net.

Dart – also a No. 28 seed in women’s qualifying – progressed past Katrina Scott of the USA in three sets.

The world No. 109 won 6-3 4-6 6-4 against her 18-year-old opponent as she proved far more clinical, taking 50% of her 12 break-point opportunities compared to Scott’s return of five from 21.

Dart also landed 40 winners, but an unforced error count of 46 and seven double faults were clear areas for improvement.

Boulter secured her spot in the next round by beating Nuria Brancaccio 6-2 4-6 6-4.

Choinski qualified for the second round after Nicolas Kicker was forced to retire in set three with the Brit leading 2-6 6-3 2-0 at the time.

Katie Swan was beaten 6-4 6-2 by Clara Tauson while Heather Watson lost 6-4 6-3 against Olga Danilovic and Yuriko Miyazaki lost 6-2 6-4 to Ashlyn Krueger.

In Lyon, Draper earned an impressive 6-4 7-5 victory over fifth seed Kecmanovic to move into the quarter-finals and continue his encouraging progress towards Roland-Garros.

Competing at his first tournament since Monte Carlo in April, Draper knocked out the world No. 36 in 92 minutes, going unbroken throughout the match with six aces and an 82% first serve success rate.

Draper will face fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo next.

– – –