Consequence? The 23-year-old had almost no breaks during the off-season and took off for Oceania on December 23 with a lot of questions in his head. Some of them quickly disappeared. Both in the first round against the Argentinian Burrachaga (ATP 152) and in the second against the American Kovacevic (ATP 108), the Liégeois showed self-sacrifice after losing the opening round. The second had also beaten him from the start last season in these same qualifications. So there was an air of revenge.
For the third and final round, next night he will face a formidable opponent, the American Mackenzie McDonald (ATP 130), former 37th in the world. If the result of this meeting remains to be discovered, Onclin can, whatever happens, already draw a lot of positives from his journey. With two successes in these qualifications, he pocketed 84,000 Australian dollars. That is the equivalent of 50,000 euros, around a fifth of his career earnings.
Beyond the numbers, he is also accumulating confidence and ATP points, with the first two rounds earning him 16 points. A qualification for the main draw, where he would join David Goffin, Zizou Bergs and perhaps Kimmer Coppejans, who also played last night, would give him 25 in total.
-In the event of qualification, Wallonia would have two representatives in the final draw of a Major for the first time since the 2019 US Open (David Goffin and Steve Darcis).
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