{"id":10781,"date":"2015-12-21T08:20:47","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T00:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=10781"},"modified":"2016-01-15T12:36:04","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T04:36:04","slug":"flawless-inglis-bound-for-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2015\/12\/21\/flawless-inglis-bound-for-australian-open","title":{"rendered":"Flawless Inglis bound for Australian Open!"},"content":{"rendered":"

WA’s\u00a0Maddison Inglis<\/strong> has produced a masterful performance to win the Australian Open 2016 Play-off at Melbourne Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Inglis subdued\u00a0Arina Rodionova<\/strong> 6-4 6-2 to secure an Australian Open main draw wildcard, just one week after narrowly missing out on one in the final of the 18\/u Australian Championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was exhausted after the 18s, just mentally and physically. I don\u2019t know \u2013 I got through it,\u201d Inglis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy right now. I actually can\u2019t believe it still. I was so nervous during that whole second set \u2013 I can\u2019t believe I got through it, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodionova was backing up after a huge weekend which saw her win a torrid three set semifinal on Saturday morning before rushing off to her wedding.<\/p>\n

She was understandably drained during Sunday\u2019s final, her third straight loss in an Australian Open Play-off decider after falling to Daria Gavrilova last year and Casey Dellacqua in December 2013.<\/p>\n

Yet even in peak condition it would have been a struggle to contend with Inglis, who showed remarkable composure and aggression despite being just 17 years of age.<\/p>\n

The West Australian broke serve in the opening game of the match only for Rodionova to do exactly the same in the very next game.<\/p>\n

But when Inglis scored her second break in the seventh game to push ahead 4-3, she wasn\u2019t going to let her advantage slip again.<\/p>\n

Going after her shots, controlling the centre of the court and looking to move\u00a0forward at every opportunity, she bookended\u00a0the final game of the first set with\u00a0a powerful forehand and a swinging volley winner, closing it out to love.<\/p>\n

In the second set, Inglis\u00a0came out on top of a intense\u00a0sixth game\u00a0to push ahead 5-1.<\/p>\n

When presented with a chance to serve out the match two games later, she made no mistake, sealing victory with a powerful first serve down the T.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat went through my head was, if I push (the ball), she\u2019s going to come back, and I don\u2019t want to lose by just pushing it. So I just thought, it doesn\u2019t matter how nervous I am, I\u2019m just going to go for it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I hit the ball well, placed it well, and just controlled myself and my emotions well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inglis will now line up in the 128-player Australian Open main draw in January and could conceivably face a star like Serena Williams or Maria Sharapova on a big show court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be awesome \u2013 they\u2019re the best players in the world. I just don\u2019t want to get thrashed (laughter),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that would be a cool experience. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WA’s\u00a0Maddison Inglis has produced a masterful performance to win the Australian Open 2016 Play-off at Melbourne Park on Sunday. Inglis subdued\u00a0Arina Rodionova 6-4 6-2 to secure an Australian Open main draw wildcard, just one week after narrowly missing out on one in the final of the 18\/u Australian Championships. \u201cI was exhausted after the 18s, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5812,"featured_media":10782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}