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MELBOURNE, Australia – Sunday morning brought great news for Canada’s Rebecca Marino.

She found out, having arrived in Melbourne prepared to play the qualifying, that Barbora Krejcikova had withdrawn and she had squeezed into the main draw.

That’s some guaranteed money, and she won’t have to slog through three qualifying matches to get there.

If she might have been able to play Hobart had she gotten in a little earlier, Marino told Open Court that she was just going to treat it as a little mini-camp week – hanging out with her friend Yuliia Starodubtseva, whom she was practicing with Sunday.

Starodubtseva was in the exact same situation – ranked one spot ahead of Marino at the entry deadline. The 24-year-old Ukrainian squeezed in just before Marino did, when Caroline Wozniacki officially withdrew.

Here’s what she looked like on the practice court on a VERY steamy day.

Stakusic ready to go

For Marina Stakusic, who had some small chances in the fall to get into the top 100 but couldn’t quite cross that line, it will be the first Australia Open.

She comes in at No. 122 in the world, the No. 17 seed in qualifying, in her first Australian Open.

Stakusic got to No. 31 in the junior rankings, but she never got a sniff of a junior Grand Slam before ending her career shortly before her 17th birthday.

She did play the qualifying at the US Open juniors in 2021 (which took place in the Bronx). But lost in the second round, 10-7 in a match tiebreak.

So it’s her first trip to Australia, period.

She played the Canberra WTA 125 last week, beating Antonia Ruzic in the first round and losing to Australian wild card Taylah Preston.

Stakusic has coach Rob Steckley with her, and also can pick the brain of Canadian Davis Cup captain Frank Dancevic if she needs it. Dancevic, who will he helping out Quebecer Alexis Galarneau for some weeks this season, is in Melbourne and was on the practice court with Stakusic and Steckley on Sunday.

Here’s what it looked like.

First up is Hibino

Stakusic has a tricky one to start, against the speedy and very steady Nao Hibino of Japan.

Hibino, currently at No. 143, was as high as No. 56 in her early 20 and has three singles titles.

If she wins, she would meet either Ekaterina Makarova (not the original, the top 10 player, who’s long retired) or Noma Noha Akugue, a lefty from Germany.

Stakusic is due second up on Court 15 – about as far from Rod Laver Arena as you can get; it’s practically downtown.

She would have been due to take the court about noon. But it rained all morning in Melbourne and into the early afternoon. And with the starting time pushed back past 4 p.m. (optimistically), she might not get on until well after the dinner hour.

Tough hours to wait for this momentous moment in her career.