Thanasi Kokkinakis has edged towards a place in the US Open main draw with an impressive first-round qualifying win in New York.
The injury-plagued star outclassed American Bjorn Fratangelo 7-5 6-3 at Flushing Meadows and needs to win two more matches to join Australia's six direct entrants plus wildcard Max Purcell in the men's singles at the season's final grand slam.
Kokkinakis next plays Japan's 15th seed Yuichi Sugita and could face 42-year-old Ivo Karlovic in the final round of qualifying after the big-serving Croat bombed 18 aces in seeing off Serbian Nikola Milojevic 6-4 7-6 (7-1).
Karlovic plays Bolivia's Hugo Dellien next.
Kokkinakis's countryman Chris O'Connell also progressed with a 6-2 6-4 win over Turkey's Altug Celikbilek.
After reaching the second round last year and losing to world No.1 Novak Djokovic, O'Connell should have too many guns for Germany's world No.239 Mats Moraing in his next qualifier.
Kokkinakis and O'Connell are looking to join fellow Australians Alex de Minaur, John Millman, Jordan Thompson, Nick Kyrgios, James Duckworth, Alexei Popyrin and Purcell in the Open singles main draw.
But Marc Polmans lost his first-round qualifying match, as did Lizette Cabrera and Jaimee Fourlis in the women's.
That leaves Astra Sharma as the lone Aussie left in women's qualifying as she bids to join world No.1 Ash Barty, Wimbledon quarter-finalist Ajla Tomljanovic, former champion Samantha Stosur and wildcard Storm Sanders in the main draw.
The US Open starts on Tuesday (AEST), with the draw taking place early Friday morning.
