Parmar Qualifies for Main Draw

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Britain's Arvind Parmar qualified for the main draw of this year's Stella Artois Championships after defeating Australian Robert Smeets 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the final qualifying round.

The 25-year-old Parmar will be making his fifth appearance at The Queen's Club, where he advanced to the second round in 2000 after defeating 1998 champion Scott Draper before losing to Pete Sampras in three sets. His three other losses came at the hands of Wayne Arthurs, Greg Rusedski and Marc Rosset - some of the biggest servers in the game.

Parmar, who has won 10 matches during his career on the ATP circuit - nine of them on grass - is the only British man to have made it through the qualifying competition after rising Australian Todd Reid ended the hopes of Britain's Mark Hilton 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

Among those earning a place in the main draw is George Bastl, the Swiss star who famously knocked Sampras out of last year's Wimbledon championships in the second round. Bastl defeated British players Andrew Banks and Lee Childs before overcoming Nenad Zimonjic in the final qualifying round.

Belgian Gilles Elseneer, Rik De Voest of South Africa, Petr Luxa of the Czech Republic and Croatia's Ivo Karlovic also qualified into the main draw, which begins on Monday.

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