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MELBOURNE, Australia – After some sophomore struggles on the WTA Tour in 2025, Canadian Marina Stakusic qualified for her first Australian Open on Thursday with a 7-5, 6-4 win over the very capable Zhu Lin that had to be both a moment of joy – and relief.

She joins Victoria Mboko and Leylah Fernandez in the women’s singles draw – with four more in the men’s draw making the Canadian contingent an impressive one this year.

Stakusic, who turned 21 in November, didn’t lose a set in qualifying for a major for the second time; she made it through to the main draw at Wimbledon with the loss of just one set. But that was in 2024 – nearly a year and a half ago, when things must have seemed just that little bit easier.

In Melbourne, she was even more dominant.

First, she took care of Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz, 6-3, 6-2. Then, she dismantled 18-year-old Serb Teodora Kostovic 6-0, 6-2.

And then, despite an early medical timeoue to treat what looked like her right hip, she took care of business against Zhu, the former world No. 31, in the final round.

Notably, she’s no longer wearing adidas; Stakusic is one of a number of players who have signed on with the lifestyle brand Vuori (Barbora Krejcikova is another).

Australian Open debut

Stakusic’s second voyage Down Under didn’t start all that well, as she ran into 23-year-old Czech Darja Vidmanova at a WTA 125 in Canberra and quickly went down, 6-3, 6-2.

In the end, though, her form in Melbourne was a continuation of her form at the end of 2025 – a year that saw her fight through some physical issues and a loss of confidence.

Fourth time the charm as Draxl qualifies at the AO

A year ago, she was out in the first round of qualifying at the Australian Open to Nao Hibino. She also lost in the first round of qualifying at the WTA 1000 tournaments at Indian Wells, Miami (a three-heartbreaker to American Bernarda Pera, ranked No. 84) and Rome.

She didn’t fare much better in the qualifying at Roland Garros, defeating the almost-retired Lauren Daris in the first round but getting just three games against Tamara Korpatsch in the second round.

And then, she didn’t play until Montreal, where she received a wild card and lost in three sets to No. 52 Jaqueline Christian.

A first-round loss to Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium in the first round of qualifying at the US Open featured the recurrence of back woes.

There were tears.

A season that began with every hope of breaking into the top 100 for the first time went sideways, with that ranking dropping to No. 169 by October.

But she gained back some momentum by qualifying at the WTA 500 in Guadalajara, which boasted an atypically weaker field and in which she reached the quarterfinals. Then, her options limited by the tough fields on the Asian swing, she dropped down to lower events like WTA 125s and higher-tier ITFs and built on that.

Stakusic went 19-5 to close out the season, including an upset over Jelena Ostapenko in Guadalajara. She reached the final of an ITF W100 in Oklahoma and won another in Irapuato, Mexico. She then made the final of a WTA 125 in Austin Texas.

That got the Canadian’s ranking back close to where she began the year, a nice turnaround. And she’ll be guaranteed at 50 ranking points and a gain of five or six spots, even if she loses in the first round in Melbourne.

Stakusic’s first opponent will be Australian wild card Priscilla Hon, a 27-year-old ranked just a few spots above her who received a wild card straight into the main draw.