Home country, home crowd, and the possibility of playing in the Grand Slam event you’ve always dreamed of can only take you so far. In the end, the balls, lines, and rackets do not know dreams or nationality; the ball is in or out; that is it. For 15 of the 16 Americans playing in the US Open qualifying tournament, dreams of the 2019 main draw will remain dreams. American men have had little success trying to qualify for their own Open.
The Wild Cards
In US Open qualifying, a player needs to win three separate matches to advance to the main draw. The USTA often awards wild card entry to the qualifying tournament to college stars, up and coming juniors and other exciting young players. This year, eight young men received wild card entry to the qualies. Seven of the eight lost before round three.
The only wild card to advance to Friday’s US Open qualifying finals is 19-year-old Jensen Brooksby. Brooksby, who plays for Baylor University, defeated Kaichi Uchida of Japan 6-3 6-2 in the first round. Brooksby then faced Uchida’s countryman, Yuichi Sugita, and captured two tiebreakers to win 7-6 7-6. As the only American still alive in the event, Brooksby will face Spain’s Pedro Martinez with a bid to the main draw and $58,000 in prize money on the line.
While Brooksby found success, his fellow American wild card recipients fell early and often. 18-year-old junior player Govind Nanda, University of Florida star Sam Riffice, and 21-year-old Stefan Koslov each exited the event without winning a single set. The other American wild card entrants all stretched their first-round matches to three sets before bowing out. Sebastian Korda, J.C. Aragone, Alex Rybakov, J.J. Wolf, and Maxime Cressy all came close before dropping their deciding set.
American Veterans
While the wild cards are often young guns looking to break through, American veterans also looked to capitalize on qualifying opportunities. Again, it was not to be. Tour veterans Ryan Harrison and Donald Young bowed out in the first round. Harrison mustered only two games while Young could not capitalize on his win of a second-set tiebreaker, eventually losing 7-5 in the third. Likewise, burgeoning American pro Michael Mmoh won his first set before dropping two and heading for the exits. 25-year-old Mitchell Kruger won a match against Britain’s Jay Clarke before dropping his second-round match.
Crowd Favorites
Two young American veterans tried to capitalize on home crowd support to move on, but their success only went so far. Up and coming Tommy Paul and Noah Rubin both won their first-round matches before losing tough second round competitions.
Paul, who many argued deserved a wild card into the main draw, could not earn his way there. He won his first-round match against Yannick Hanfmann to advance to round two. Earning, but then failing to capitalize on numerous break points, Paul dropped his match to Pedro Martinez 6-4 6-4. After saving several match points, Paul made an error to finish; the cracked racket that followed showed his obvious disappointment at missing his homeland’s slam.
Like Paul, Noah Rubin advanced to round two before falling after a grinding effort. After dropping the first set quickly to Guillurmo Garcia Lopez, Rubin was quickly broken to start the second set. Facing a set and 0-2 deficit, Rubin rallied to 3-2. As Rubin dug in and improved his play, the crowd size and noise level grew. Rubin overcame another break to knot the set at 6-6 before falling to a more consistent Lopez in the tiebreak that ended his tournament.
At the Main Draw…
So, American qualifers will be limited to Brooksby or nobody. Despite having a strong number of entrants, 15 of the 16 entrants are out before the final day. There are six Americans that the USTA awarded main draw wild cards. Led by Jack Sock and including 16-year-old junior star Zachary Svajda, the USTA and American tennis fans are hoping for more success next week.
