Normality resumes on the tour this week, with the one week events back on the schedule. Of course, we are gearing up for the second major of the year, which means qualifying week is upon us.
Roland Garros Qualifying:
Plenty of Aussies in action this week, all trying to make their way through to the main draw, where the big points, big money, and big crowds are. Here are all the scheduled Australian matches for round 1:
Men:
Aleksandar Vukic v Raphael Collington (Belgium – 217)
Marc Polmans v Harold Mayot (France – 196)
James Duckworth v Riccardo Bonadio (Italy – 168)
Rinky Hijikata v Thiago Agustin Tirante (Argentina – 150)
Li Tu v Fabian Marozsan (Hungary – 135)
Alex Bolt v Oleksii Krutykh (Ukraine – 177)
Women:
Jaimee Fourlis v Victoria Jiminez Kasintseva (Andorra – 177)
Priscilla Hon v Alice Robbe (France – 212)
Storm Hunter v Viktorija Golubic (Switzerland – 115)
Arina Rodionova v Tara Wurth (Croatia – 156)
Olivia Gadecki v Darja Semenistaja (Latvia – 182)
Away from Paris, there are still some great tournaments, with plenty of highly credentialed players looking for valuable wins before next week.
ATP Tour:
Geneva 250, Switzerland:
Casper Ruud is going for three straight Geneva titles this week. If he does, he’ll be the first to do so. Stan Wawrinka and Mats Wilander have also won the event twice. He’ll have stiff competition from the likes of Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev, and Grigor Dimitrov. Aussie, Christopher O’Connell gains direct entry, and will take on a qualifier in round one.
Lyon 250, France:
The 6th instalment of Lyon as a clay court event, and Britain’s Cam Norrie is looking to defend his title, and become the first multiple winner here. Canadian, Felix Auger-Aliassime will be the top seed, but has struggled on the clay this year. The dangers might come from Argentinians, Sebastian Baez, and Francisco Cerundolo. Max Purcell will be the sole representative for Australia, and has drawn a qualifier in his opener.
WTA Tour:
Rabat 250, Morocco:
Italian Martina Trevisan is back to defend her title, and she’ll attempt to do it as the top seed. Sloane Stephens is also looking to continue her good recent form after taking out the 125 event in Saint Malo a couple of weeks ago. Other notables looking to tune up before Roland Garros are Mayer Sherif, Leylah Fernandez, and Linda Fruhvirtova.
Strasbourg 250, France:
An iconic event on the WTA calendar, players have been coming here for decades. Australia’s own Sam Stosur has twice been a winner here, along with players such as Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, and last years winner, Angelique Kerber. This year there’s no world number 1’s, but a solid field nonetheless. Magda Linette, Elise Mertens, Shuai Zhang, and Sorana Cirstea, would all fancy their chances to lift the trophy.
ATP Challenger Tour:
Just the one event this week, as a lot of players are descending on Paris for the French Open qualifying.
Skopje 75, North Macedonia:
The inaugural edition of the Macedonian Open, obviously hasn’t drawn the creme de lá creme, but nonetheless, it’s a very even draw. Tunisian, Aziz Dougas is the top seed, ranked 232. With the last direct acceptance ranked 309, it’s a wide open field. Part of that field is Aussie James McCabe. The 19 year old is continuing to climb the rankings, and this week is another great opportunity for him.
As always, there are lots of other Aussies will be playing at ITF 25K level and Junior level. Follow us on Twitter all through the week for the latest daily scores.
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