US Open 2004

[jayakris]

The qualifying draws came out and the qualies start tomorrow. Harsh Mankad waits as the first one out (need to find out if he is first in the ALT sign-in list). here are th draws for the 5 people we follow:

Lars Burgsmuller GER (16) vs Daniel Koellerer AUT
Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi PAK vs Rik De Voest RSA
Filip Prpic SWE vs Bjorn Rehnquist SWE
Wesley Moodie RSA vs Thomas Zib CZE (26)

Janko Tipsarevic SCG (9) vs Mykyta Kryvonos USA
Salvador Navarro ESP vs Simon Larose CAN
Arvind Parmar GBR vs Bruno Soares BRA
Lesley Joseph USA vs Alexander Peya AUT (17)

Eugenia Linetskaya RUS (13) vs Mariya Koryttseva UKR
Martina Muller GER vs Yuka Yoshida JPN
Sunitha Rao USA vs Natalie Grandin RSA
Patricia Wartusch AUT vs Samantha Reeves USA (22)

Anne Kremer LUX (15) vs Alice Canepa ITA
Shikha Uberoi USA vs Ivana Abramovic CRO
Jane O'donoghue GBR vs Vanina Garcia Sokol ARG
Katerina Bohmova CZE vs Vilmarie Castellvi PUR (29)

Selima Sfar TUN (16) vs Rika Fujiwara JPN
Neha Uberoi USA vs Cory Ann Avants USA
Anna Chakvetadze RUS vs Elena Tatarkova UKR
Jessica Lehnhoff USA vs Yulia Beygelzimer UKR (18)

All five of them avoided tough seeds in the first round.

Jay

[potato]

Judging from her opponents, I think Shikha Uberoi has a great chance to make the main draw.

[PKBasu]

It would be spectacular if Shikha, Sunitha or Neha make the main draw. Heartbreak yet again for Harsh. I pray that someone opts out of the draw and Harsh manages to squeeze in, but I suppose there are only a few days remaining for that to happen.
Aisam is lucky to have drawn deVoest, whom Harsh beat quite recently.

[jayakris]

Well, this is the second time that an Indian ended up first-out. Prakash was in the same situation at the Australian Open. What are the odds, eh? We have just ONE Indian guy trying to get in each time, and he ends up first-out ...

The bad news is that First-out from the draw is not necessarily first in for an ALT spot. If any higher ranked player came out and signed-in (say somebody who moved ahead of Harsh in ranking since the entry deadline three weeks back), he would get the spot. In other words, the original entry list is irrelevant now [well, sort of. If there is a main draw withdrawal tonight, before the play starts tomorrow at 10 am, Harsh will replace the second seed, who is next-in for a main draw spot. Once the play starts a main draw withdrawl results in a lucky loser spot. As of 10 am tomorrow, the Q entry list becomes irrelevant].

Prakash waited for two whole days for a withdrawal at the AO Q. The bad news was that a high ranked player who had not entered either the main draw or qualies (he would have actually made main draw had he done so - but I suppose he had goofed that up) showed up and he was the first in the sign-up list. One ALT spot clered, he took it, and then PA waited for two days for a withdrawal. Nothing.

Normally there are more than one no shows. May be 2 or 3. Who knows what will happen this time.

One of us will have to keep a watch on the scoreboard to see if HM's name suddenly shows up. No warning on that. HM said that somebody told him about Simon Larose being innured. He ius scheduled to play in the eveing Tuesday. We will have an eye on that.

HM did not know if he was the first in the sign-up list. Hopefully he is.

Jay

[BSharma]

Keeping my fingers crossed for Harsh.

Harsh deserves to be in the US Open.

[shyam]

I was looking at the US Open qualifying drwas (both men and women) and saw that the seeds 1-4 are placed in the same quarter of the draw. Going forward, they have seeds 5-8, 9-12, 13-16 in a given quarter of the draw...
Isn't that weired? I thought usually the seed 1 and 2 will be in opposite ends of the draw.
Or do I need to go for an eye check-up?

[BSharma]

shyam,

I pronounce your eye sight to be 20/20.

The seeded players will not meet in the qualifying draw and one player from each seeded bracket will advance to the main draw.

[jayakris]

shyam, to explain more about what Bhushan said, there are 16 players who advance from the qualies. They are in 16 groups of 8 players each (they are the "brackets" that Bhushan mentions). Each bracket has two seeds. So, the top 16 seeds will not play each other during the three rounds of qualies. Each could get one of the bottom 16 seeds in the 3rd round.

It is the same way they do the 3-round qulaies with 32 players for normal ATP events (4 players qualifying from 4 brackets of 8 each. The top 4 seeds do not face each other)

Jay

[jayakris]

Just checked the rank lists. As many as 5 players who have moved ahead of Harsh could potentially show up for qualies sign-up. One I am very sure of is Marcus sarstrand, who lost the Long Island qualies and is in NY. There are other possibilities like Tobias Summerer who just moved way up to #229 with a big german chllanger title this sunday. I doubt he would come.

Harsh may need 2 or even 3 no-shows to make it in as an ALT, unless a main draw withdrawal happens by tomorrow morning. Looks doubtful.

Jay

[shyam]

Thanks Jay. I did not think about how many players would be qualifying for the main draw. Probably was trying to take the qualies draw to semis and finals too...
Hope Harsh makes the qualies.

shyam, to explain more about what Bhushan said, there are 16 players who advance from the qualies. They are in 16 groups of 8 players each (they are the "brackets" that Bhushan mentions). Each bracket has two seeds. So, the top 16 seeds will not play each other during the three rounds of qualies. Each could get one of the bottom 16 seeds in the 3rd round.

It is the same way they do the 3-round qulaies with 32 players for normal ATP events (4 players qualifying from 4 brackets of 8 each. The top 4 seeds do not face each other)

Jay

[S_K_S]

66 mins for someone to withdraw from the main draw!! *Praying*

[jayakris]

No withdrawals of anything and the matches are about to start ..

Bad news, just as in Prakash's case in the Australian Open. One higher-ranked guy showed up. Gerogio Galimberti (#208) who had not entered the qualifying list earlier. So he is the first one waiting. I believe Harsh is the second in line (not fully sure). This will be a long wait for a couple of no shows ... Hope HM gets more lucky than PA.

What are the odds for this to happen to our players two times this year in events with about 225 direct spots? Unbelievable. Damn.

Jay

[BSharma]

It will be a sad day if Harsh does not make it in at the US Open.

However, let this spur him to achieve a top 100 ranking by the time the next US Open rolls around and he will not have to wait for a nod from the organizers.

Still keeping my fingers crossed for this year.

[jayakris]

Today's matches of interest:

Court 11, Match 3 --- Shikha Uberoi (USA) vs Ivana Abramovic (CRO)
Court 10, Match 4 --- Neha Uberoi (USA) vs Cory Ann Avants (USA)
Court 6, Match 5 --- Arvind Parmar (GBR) vs Bruno Soares (BRA)

Sunitha and Aisam play the Q1 tomorrow.

Jay