Australia will field it’s largest singles contingent at Wimbledon in 13 years after three men secured main draw spots through qualifying.
Former top-ranked junior Luke Saville and big-serving Sam Groth will make their main draw debuts at the grass court grand slam, starting on Monday, with James Duckworth earning a second successive start.
All three won matches in the third and final round of qualifying at Roehampton on Thursday but Ashleigh Barty and Alex Bolt missed chances to join them.
The addition of Saville, Groth and Duckworth takes to 11 the number of Australians lining up at the All England Club next week.
It is the nation’s largest representation since 2001, when Pat Rafter – one of 12 Australians in the field – lost an epic final to Goran Ivanisevic.
Saville, Groth and Duckworth join Lleyton Hewitt, Bernard Tomic, Marinko Matosevic, Matt Ebden and Nick Kyrgios in the field.
It’s the first time Australia has had eight men in the main draw since 2000 but Hewitt is the highest-ranked player at No.46.
Samantha Stosur, Casey Dellacqua and Jarmila Gajdosova will line up in the women’s singles.
South Australian Saville, 20, scored a gutsy 2-6 6-3 5-7 7-6 (9-7) 8-6 win over Swiss Yann Marti to secure only his second grand slam start after earning a wildcard berth at last year’s Australian Open.
The former Wimbledon and Australian Open junior champion, ranked 233rd in the world, defeated top seed Thomaz Bellucci in the first round of qualifying.
Groth defeated Simone Bolelli 6-2 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to clinch a deserved start, having just missed out on a wildcard when he lost to Kyrgios in the final of last week’s Challenger event in Nottingham.
The 26-year-old recently moved to a career-high ranking of 125.
Duckworth beat Austrian Martin Fischer 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 to ensure a seventh successive main draw grand slam appearance.
The 22-year-old has been in impressive form, pushing second seed Tomas Berdych all the way in a second-round loss at Queen’s Club.
Bolt, 21, fell short of a grand slam debut in a 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-4 loss to Russian Konstantin Kravchuk.
Barty missed a chance to boost Australia’s female contingent to four, falling 6-7 (7-5) 6-3 6-4 to Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
The men’s and women’s singles draws will be determined on Friday.