MELBOURNE, Australia — Three Baltic tennis players have qualified to play in the first tennis Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open.

Anastasija Sevestova of Latvia and Kaia Kanepi of Estonia will both compete in the women’s draw whilst Latvian Ernests “The Gull” Gulbis will compete in the men’s competition. In addition Kanepi will also compete in the women’s doubles with German partner Jasmin Wöhr and Sevastova will join with Russian Maria Kondratieva.

Sevestova is first up when she plays one of the opening games (1200hrs Sunday evening Baltic time) of the tournament on a court about as far as one could get from Rod Laver and Hisense Arenas. There she will meet Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She is bound to have her work cut out for her against the Russian, who is on the verge of making the top-30 and was just outside of receiving a ranking for this particular tournament.

Playing on a just as obscure court is Kaia Kanepi, taking on Yung-Jan Chan of Taipei. If world rankings are anything to go by it is a game that Kanepi should win, enjoying a ranking 25 places higher than her opposition. Being third up on their court, the game should take place around breakfast time Monday in the Baltics.

Gulbis will compete on Tuesday when he takes on no.30 seed Juan Monaco. The match has been billed as one of the top first round meetings with many, including the bookmakers backing the Latvian to win. Much of the hype comes on the back of the Latvian’s recent performance against Roger Federer, but it is always difficult to know what game Gulbis will bring when he plays.