Naomi Broady bows out in Australian Open qualifying first round

British No 3 Naomi Broady crashed out in the first round of Australian Open qualifying with a three-set defeat by Alize Lim.

Broady, ranked 112th, beat former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic in Auckland last week but was unable to carry her momentum into the first Grand Slam of the year, where she is yet to reach the main draw.

After scorching temperatures on Wednesday, Broady and Lim were forced to adjust to a cool, blustery morning in Melbourne and both struggled for consistency throughout.

Broady found her ball toss particularly difficult, producing 10 double faults overall, and one poor service game early on was enough to give the world No 166 the opening set.

The Briton turned up the heat in the second with a more aggressive approach and it paid dividends as a break in the fourth game pushed the contest to a decider.

Just as the 25-year-old looked to be asserting her authority, however, several errors allowed her opponent to move ahead again.

Two double faults gave Lim the double break for 5-3 and while Broady saved two match points, she could not stop the third as the Frenchwoman closed out her surprise win in an hour and 53 minutes.

Evans converted two of his four break points, while only losing his serve once to knock out the top seed Luca Vanni with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 triumph.