The final day of qualifying for the men’s singles main draw at Brisbane International 2012 was a hard-fought affair.
Two homegrown talents in John Millman and Chris Guccione played out a classic encounter on court 14.
Having originally won the first set in a tiebreak, Millman lost the second in similar fashion before recovering to claim victory 7-6(4) 6-7(3) 7-6(4).
Earlier in the day Russian Igor Andreev was pushed all the way by Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp.
In a see-saw contest, Andreev fought back from being down two break points early in the first set to eventually win 6-4.
Zopp, ranked 146th in the world for singles, showed his fighting spirit by claiming the second set in emphatic fashion 6-2.
In front of a large crowd who were being thoroughly entertained, Zopp broke Andreev’s serve early in the third set to make the score 3-1.
Both players traded games until Andreev broke back and held serve to tie the score at 4-4 in the final set.
With little separating the players, it seemed likely this qualifying spot would be settled by a tiebreak.
However, Andreev, the 2007 ATP Comeback Player of the Year, had alternative plans.
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With the scores locked at 5-5, the towering Russian delivered an ultimately decisive blow when he broke Zopp’s serve before closing the game out to win 6-4 2-6 7-5.
Elsewhere, Tatsuma Ito, 23, ruined Australian Michael Look’s chances of qualifying for the Brisbane International this year.
After dropping the first set 4-6, Ito won the second and third sets 6-4 6-4 to earn his spot in the main draw.
In the final qualifier, the fine form of German Tobias Kamke came to an end.
After defeating Australian Greg Jones on Sunday in his second-round match, Kamke was beaten in straight sets by 24-year-old American Jesse Levine 7-5 6-4.
Following the completion of qualifying, the four qualifiers names were drawn at random then inserted into the draw.
Millman will play Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo, Andreev takes on Adrian Mannarino, Jesse Levine faces Jarkko Nieminen and Tatsuma Ito will play Australian wildcard Ben Mitchell.