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Ellen Perez has joined Marc Polmans and Chris O'Connell as the three Australians successfully negotiated qualifying to make the Wimbledon main draw.
Ellen Perez has become the third and final Australian player to make it through qualifying and battle her way into Wimbledon's main draw.
The world No.231 from Shellharbour, NSW, became the lowest-ranked of the Aussie trio to make it into the tournament proper on Friday as she joined Marc Polmans and Chris O'Connell in earning one of the coveted 32 qualifying places.
The left-hander Perez, who's only ever played in two grand slams and never before at Wimbledon, earned a notable 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) third round triumph over 10th qualifying seed, Oceane Dodin, a French FedCup player who's been a winner on the WTA Tour.
The 25-year-old Perez had to overcome a scare when she took a tumble at 5-5 in the second set but picked herself up to complete one of the best wins of her career in one hour 46 minutes.
There had been high hopes that two other Australian women also might make it through the last of their three qualifiers on Friday.
Yet Queensland southpaw Storm Sanders went down 4-6 6-3 7-5 against rising French star Clara Burel, while Arina Rodionova was beaten by British wildcard Katie Swan 6-0 6-4.
Polmans had qualified on Thursday after surviving a barrage of aces in his final match against the monster serving of Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan, who boomed down 29 aces over five sets and three-and-a-half hours.
After Ramanathan had saved four match points with his nerveless serving, Polmans finally booked his first main draw at Wimbledon 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 11-9 and was left ecstatic.
The Melbourne player had hoped to draw Roger Federer in the first round of the main tournament but, instead, found himself with a much more winnable match against Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu.
"I'm just happy to get through, and Jeez, it was a dramatic one!" said Polmans.
Sydney's O'Connell, who's had a lot of marathons recently including a five-set loss at Roland Garros, was thrilled to get through his third round match in straight sets - although close ones - 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 7-6 (7-4) against Czech Tomas Machac.
"It's an amazing feeling," he told AAP. "I've been lucky enough with wildcards in the past but this is only the second grand slam I've actually qualified for. It's great to feel you've really earned it."
O'Connell has been given a tough opener in the tournament proper, having been drawn to play France's 13th seed Gael Monfils.
In all, 14 Australians had entered the notoriously difficult qualifying tournament at the Roehampton grass-court venue near to Wimbledon, with only Polmans, O'Connell and Perez winning all three of their matches.
