Jamie Baker joins Murray in Australian Open main draw
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Your support makes all the difference.Jamie Baker joined Andy Murray in the main draw at the Australian Open today but there was disappointment for James Ward.
Baker enjoyed a wonderful 6-4 1-6 6-3 victory in the final round of qualifying over American Donald Young, who was ranked 39th in the world at the end of 2011.
The Glaswegian, ranked 246, was then handed a first-round match with Lukas Rosol, the Czech who caused a sensation at Wimbledon last year by beating Rafael Nadal.
A break in the seventh game handed Baker the first set and although he was swamped in the second, he responded superbly to break early in the decider, aided by a Young double fault.
The American threatened numerous times on the Baker serve but the 26-year-old held his nerve to advance.
It is just the second time he has managed to make the main draw of a grand slam event outside Wimbledon - he lost in the first round in Melbourne to Ivo Karlovic in 2008 - but he insisted there would be no wild celebrations tonight.
"I am going to have a nice early night," he said. "I am tired.
"Tomorrow I can relax and let everything sink in."
Ward was unable to find a way past Germany's Julian Reister, losing 6-3 7-5.
A solitary break cost him the opening set and Reister, ranked 49 places below Ward at 296 in the world, broke twice more in the second to go through.
PA
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