U.S. Open qualifying gets underway on Tuesday in New York. Ricky Dimon of The Grandstand and Steen Kirby of Tennis East Coast make their predictions for the 16 men who will play their way into the main draw.
Qualifying draw on the U.S. Open website
Ricky:
1) Malek Jaziri – Jaziri ‘s toughest test will likely come in the first round against Chase Buchanan. Jaziri should survive and then have no trouble thereafter.
2) Go Soeda – The King (Oscar Hernandez) is in this section and facing Soeda in round one. Other than those two, there is nothing else to speak of in this part of the bracket.
3) Ante Pavic – Is Ante Pavic the good one, or is that Mate Pavic? Either way, either one should be able to qualify with this draw. The other Pospisil (Jaroslav) may also have a chance.
4) James Duckworth – The two seeds in this group of eight are Facundo Bagnis and Somdev Devvarman. Duckworth is better than both of those guys at the moment, especially on hard courts.
5) Thanasi Kokkinakis – Alexander Zverev has cooled off and this is not the same Horacio Zeballos who beat Rafael Nadal last season. Kokkinakis can be expected to take advantage.
6) Illya Marchenko – Marchenko has resurfaced to at least some kind of relevance this summer. Even mediocre form may be enough to see him through arguably the second weakest section.
7) Rhyne Williams – A shadow of his 2013 self, Williams at least has something going for him: he is playing a Spaniard with three names on a hard court. Rajeev Ram is probably the favorite here, but Williams is the proverbial wild card.
8) Ricardas Berankis – Berankis has gone off the deep end. On the bright side for him though, Americans Mackenzie McDonald and Collin Altamirano are nowhere near ready yet and everyone else in this pod has gone off an even deeper end than Goffin has.
9) Marius Copil – Where has Aljaz Bedene been this season? The Copil vs. Peter Gojowczyk second-round winner should ultimately get the job done.
10) Peter Polansky – It is not the easiest of sections with Americans Tennys Sandgren and Alex Kuznetsov. But Sandgren, Polansky’s opening opponent, has been injured.
11) Michal Przysiezny – Alex Bogomolov appears to be over the hill and Francis Tiafoe has not yet arrived at the hill. Hence, the door is open for Przysiezny.
12) Tim Puetz – Puetz reached the second round of Wimbledon. The winner of his first-round match with Yuichi Sugita should qualify.
13) Mate Delic – There are a whole lot of youngsters in this section. For now, Delic is the best of them.
14) Michael Russell – We need Russell in the main draw just to dig up the annual story regarding his bid to finally win a match at the U.S. Open. The 36-year-old American is 0-9 lifetime.
15) James Ward – Ward, known for helping Great Britain past the United States in Davis Cup earlier this season, qualified in Cincinnati and made it to the second round.
16) Jimmy Wang – Fortunately for Wang, the 2013 version of Dan Evans ain’t walkin’ through that door. The other half of Wang’s section is intriguing, with Thiemo De Bakker, Borna Coric, and Stefan Kozlov. Wang will avoid those guys at least until the final round.
Steen:
1: Ruben Bemelmans – I have the Belgian making his U.S. Open main-draw debut. He has been inconsistent in putting all the pieces together, but he has talent. The Jaziri-Buchanan could conceivably be a roadblock.
9: Marius Copil – Copil is a big hitter with some talent. He’s in a weak section that features the nation-switcher Aljaz Bedene, who has been very quiet since switching to UK nationality, and potential dark horse Egor Gerasimov.
16: Borna Coric – I’m going out on a limb and picking the teenager to make his Grand Slam main-draw debut. His form hasn’t been great and the section is loaded, but a round-one test with De Bakker could make Coric battle-hardened.
who ya got?
Might as well Go for a Soeda.
Nobody hurts and nobody dies!!!
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