US Open, qualifying kicks off: twelve Italians dream of main draw
At 5 p.m. Italian time on Monday, Aug. 18, the qualifying tournaments for the main draw of the US Open will kick off: 256 players committed in total, equally divided between men and women, for three qualifying rounds that will promote 16 tennis players and as many women players to the main draw. There will be a total of 12 Italians, 8 men and 4 women.
In the men’s draw there are Stefano Travaglia, who will face the U.S. Martin Damm in the first round, Francesco Maestrelli, engaged with the Australian James McCabe, Stefano Napolitano, opposing the Swiss Marc-Andrea Hüsler, Francesco Passaro, who will face the Taiwanese Hsu Yu-hsiou, Federico Cinà, engaged with the Australian James McCabe;Helvetic Dominic Stricker; Giulio Zeppieri, whose first opponent will be Lebanese Hady Habib; Matteo Gigante, who will face Lithuanian Edas Butvilas; and Andrea Pellegrino, drawn with Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin. Gigante and Pellegrino could face each other in the final round.
The women’s draw, as far as the Italian colors are concerned, will instead feature Martina Trevisan against Russia’s Tatiana Prozorova, Giorgia Pedone against Poland’s Maja Chwalinska, Nuria Brancaccio against Australia’s Priscilla Hon, and Lucrezia Stefanini against another Russian, Vitalia Diatchenko. Avoided possible clashes “fratricide” between the athletes representing the tricolor.
The U.S. Open qualifying tournaments will run from Monday, Aug. 18 to Wednesday, Aug. 20. The main tournaments, on the other hand, will start on Sunday, August 24, and then go on to conclude on September 7 with the men’s final. The defending champions are Jannik Sinner (men’s singles), Aryna Sabalenka (women’s singles), Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson (men’s doubles), Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko (women’s doubles), and Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori (mixed doubles).
