By Mike McIntyre

The 2010 Australian Open officially begins on Monday except important matches have already begun in thequalifying draw.

The 128-player draw will job its way down to a fortunate group of 16 players who will progress to the main draw of the tournament.

Seeded first in the qualifying draw isXavier Malisseof Belgium who advanced to the second round of the qualies with a 6-2 7-6(5) win against Alex Kuznetsov of the United States. Malisse is a talented but under-achieving veteran who reached a career-high of 19 in the world in 2002 the same year he reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon. Currently ranked 92nd Malisse does not necessarily have to win all of his qualifying matches to advance into the tournament. Should any player who is entered in the main draw withdraw from their opening match ahead of time Malisse would get the first lucky-loser to fill-in due to his ranking.

Other names of favour in the qualifying draw include former American phenomDonald Youngwho won his first match 7-5 6-0 against Marc Lopez of Spain. At only twenty years of age the possibility of Young reaching his enormous potential serene exists although it seems his game is at a stand-still at the moment ranked 194th in the world.

Former NCAA championSomdev Devvarmanholds the 27th seed amongst qualifiers and won his first match easily 6-2 6-1 against local Australian James Duckworth. Going to academy at the University of Virginia Devvarman won the NCAA title in back-to-back years in 2007 and 2008. He defeated current top-fifty ATP played John Isner in the 2007 final so the kid certainly has skill. Perhaps this is the year he finally breaks out on tour. 

Canadian youngsterPeter Polanskyfell in the opening round 1-6 2-6 to Marsel Ilhan of Turkey. The 21 year old is my home country's best hope for a top-fifty player in the future and is currently ranked 186th in the world. A tough rest for Polansky like he made the main draw in Australia a year ago and even pushed Igor Andreev to a fifth set in the first round before falling. Polanksy actually qualified for three Grand Slam tournaments in 2009 losing in the first round of each in five sets.

The main draw will be announced this Friday.