London, 14 June 2011 | tennis.com.au

Five Australian men have won their opening round matches at the Wimbledon Qualifying event to move a step closer to reaching the main draw.

Bernard Tomic, Chris Guccione, Marinko Matosevic, Greg Jones and Matthew Ebden all made a successful start on day one of qualifying and advanced to the second round.

Four other Aussies – Carsten Ball, Peter Luczak, James Lemke and John Millman – all fell at the first hurdle.

Players must win three matches in qualifying to earn a place in the main draw at next week’s grand slam.

Lleyton Hewitt is the nation’s only automatic entry into the men’s singles at Wimbledon this year.

Australia will have four entrants in the women’s qualifying event – Sophie Ferguson, Olivia Rogowska, Casey Dellacqua and Sally Peers.

Aussie results

Day one – Wimbledon qualifying

Bernard Tomic d Sebastian Rieschick (GER) 6-4 5-7 6-4

Chris Guccione d Marek Semjan (SVK) 7-6(2) 7-6(5)

[30] Marinko Matosevic d Alexander Flock (GER) 6-2 6-4

Greg Jones d [11] Paolo Lorenzi 7-5 4-6 6-2

Matthew Ebden d [23] Simon Greul (GER) 4-6 7-6(4) 6-4

[9] Flavio Cipolla (ITA) d James Lemke 6-4 6-3

Danai Udomchoke (THA) d Carsten Ball 6-4 3-6 6-4

Fritz Wolmarans (RSA) d John Millman 2-6 6-3 7-5

Frederik Nielsen (DEN) d Peter Luczak 7-6(8) 6-3