Yes, was really hoping after a few weeks off that Dan could get back into the groove and get through the match
Novikov up next, which won't be a cake walk but I guess he'll be thinking the same about Dan.
Re Aussie Open qualifiers, the ranking required for that and the points for that ranking at the cut off time can only be roughly estimated.
If you need to be as high as WR 250 say, which is apparently quite possible, then the current WR 250 has 197 points.
Dan had 180 points going into this week and he has nothing to come off before the 21/12/15 ranking cut-off.
His R1 win takes him to 187, a R2 win would take him to 195, so certainly getting to around the necessary ranking points with still another 8 weeks after this in theory available.