Roland Garros Qualifying Draw Yields Familiar Names And Rising Stars

Chun-hsin Tseng
Chun-hsin Tseng (photo: Florian Heer)

PARIS/WASHINGTON, May 21, 2022 (by Michael Dickens)

What began on Monday with a pair of 128-draw men’s and women’s fields competing for precious few qualifying spots each in the 2022 French Open, the year’s second major championship, wrapped up Friday at Stade Roland Garros.

With a goal of winning three matches over four days, a total of 16 men and 16 women made the grade – and, no doubt, each is thrilled and relieved to have survived the experience and be promoted to the main draw. The French Open begins Sunday and concludes on June 5.

Challenger Tour star Tseng to make Roland Garros debut

Here are some of the Friday highlights:

• Men’s NextGen ATP rising star Chun-hsin Tseng of Taiwan, age 20, will make his main-draw debut at Roland Garros after defeating Germany’s Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, 6-3, 6-3, Friday. Tseng is the winner of two ATP Challenger Tour titles this season and is seventh in the Pepperstone ATP Race to Milan for the Next Gen Finals. Tseng did not drop a set in any of his three qualifying matches. He broke Stebe five times to advance.

• Norbert Gombos of Slovakia, ranked 115th, reached his third Roland Garros main draw after defeating Tim Van Rijthoven of the Netherlands, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5). His biggest win in Paris came two years ago when he beat Borna Coric en route to a third-round finish.

• Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru made the Paris main draw on his third qualifying attempt after defeating Nicolas Jarry of Chile, 5-7, 6-4, 10-5. He came back from a break down in the third set to win in two hours and 56 minutes.

• No. 227 Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia defeated Marco Trungelliti of Argentina, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, to reach his sixth Roland Garros main draw. He’s been as far as the third round in 2015.

• Bjorn Fratangelo of the United States qualified for the second straight year after defeating Nino Serdarusic of Croatia, 7-5, 6-4. He hopes to go better than his first-round loss last year to Cameron Norrie.

• Pavel Kotov of Russia advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Pedro Cachin of Argentina.

• Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina defeated Alexander Ritschard of the United States, 7-6 (6), 6-2, to move on to the main draw for the first time.

• Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France qualified for his home major for the first time in his sixth qualifying attempt. He beat Daniel Masur of Germany, 6-1, 6-3.

Borges continues breakthrough season by reaching Roland Garros main draw

Here are some of the Thursday highlights:

• Portugal’s Nuno Borges, ranked 126th, improved to 25-9 in all competitions following his 6-3, 6-4 victory over Zsombor Piros of Hungary. The winner of an ATP Challenger Tour title in Barletta, Italy on clay last month, Borges will be making his Roland Garros debut against No. 21 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia.

• No. 215 Giulio Zeppieri of Italy, just 20, defeated France’s Sean Cuenin, 6-3, 6-4, to cap a clean slate of three wins in which he did not drop a set.

• Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles reached the main draw for the second straight year following his 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over NextGen ATP rising star Luca Nardi of Italy.

• Zdenek Kolar of the Czech Republic reached the main draw in his fifth qualifying attempt after defeating Franco Agamenone of Italy, 6-3, 6-4.

• Jason Kubler of Australia advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Pedro Sousa of Portugal.

• Sebastian Ofner of Austria, who won an ATP Challenger Tour title in Prague last month, defeated Italian Alessandro Giannessi, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.

• Borna Gojo of Croatia downed Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Londero, 7-6 (1), 6-1, to qualify after losing in qualifying at all four Grand Slams last year.

• Santiago Fa Rodriguez Taverna of Argentina earned his Grand Slam debut after defeating Dimitar Kuzmanov of Bulgaria, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Former Top 20 Vekic leads women’s qualifiers into the main draw

Donna Vekic of Croatia, ranked 101st, prevailed over Anastasia Gasanova of Russia, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, in the final round on Thursday to advance to the Roland Garros main draw. The 25-year-old Vekic, who has been ranked as high as World No. 19 – and has reached the fourth round at all four Grand Slam events – was playing in her first qualifying draw in six years after seeing her ranking dip due to much lost time the past two years because of injuries.

Three of the top-seeded qualifiers joined Vekic in the main draw as No 2 Jule Niemeier of Germany, No. 3 Zhu Lin of China and No. 5 Irina Bara of Romania all won on Thursday. Additionally, Czech 17-year-old Linda Noskova reached her first Grand Slam after winning last year’s Roland Garros girls’ junior singles title.

Also advancing were: No. 14 seed Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine, who saved a match point to defeat Yulia Naito of Japan, 2-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2. The 32-year-old has recently struggled with injuries but has managed to qualify for both the Australian Open and Roland Garros this year. She will play World No. 1 and top seed Iga Swiatek in the first round.

Other qualifiers include: Olga Danilovic of Serbia, Rebecca Marino of Canada, Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia, Fernanda Contreras Gomez of Mexico, Hailey Baptiste of the United States, Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium, Cristina Bucsa of Spain, Oksana Selekmeteva of Russia, Mirjam Bjorklund of Sweden and Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece.

 

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