The draw has taken place for the men’s and women’s qualifying competition at the US Open.
A total of 128 players have entered each draw with only 16 qualifying places up for grabs. In the men’s section, Japan’s Yūichi Sugita will be the top seed. The 27-year-old is currently at a ranking high of 83rd in the world and has won one Challenger title this year. He will start his campaign against France’s Alexandre Sidorenko. Completing the top five seeds are Konstantin Kravchuk (Russia), Karen Khachanov (Russia), Thiago Monteiro (Brazil), and Nikoloz Basilashvili (Georgia).
35-year-old Jurgen Melzer will be bidding to play in his 15th consecutive US Open main draw. The former world No.8 has slipped outside of the world’s top 300 after being troubled by a shoulder injury. The Austrian was able to enter the draw with the help of his protected ranking. Melzer is draw in the same section as fourth seed Thiago Monteiro.
The women’s section will be headlined by Slovakia’s Kristína Kučová, who broke into the top 100 for the first time this year and is currently ranked 77th in the world. She will be hoping to qualify for her first grand slam main draw since the 2010 Australian Open. Joining Kucova in the top five are Duan Yingying, (China), Tamira Paszek (Austria), Donna Vekić (Croatia) and Zhang Kailin (China).
Outside of the seeded players, other notable entrants include Laura Robson, Melanie Oudin and CiCi Bellis. All three of those players have enjoyed success at the tournament in recent time. Robson reached the fourth round in 2012, Oudin is a former quarter-finalist (2009) and Bellis stunned Dominika Cibulkoa in the first round of the event in 2014 at the age of 15.
In US Open history, only three qualifiers have progressed to the quarter-final stage in the main draw. The most recent player to achieve this was Gilles Muller in 2008. Prior to Muller, Nicolas Escude progressed to the last eight in 1999 and Barbara Gerken 1981.
The qualifying competition will start at Flushing meadows on Tuesday. The men’s draw can be viewed here and the women’s here.
