US Open Qualies: The Standouts

I managed to catch the opening day of the qualifiers at the US Open yesterday. There were actually a number of good matches to see. The two standout matches were the Thomaz Bellucci and Grigor Dimitrov.

Bellucci happens to be the top-seed of the qualifiers. The Brazilian managed to take apart Giancarlo Petrazzuola 6-2 6-0. He played a really solid match and almost made no mistakes. The current world no. 68, who more of a clay-courter, started out the year steadily progressing but then stalled. The 21 year old returned to the challenger circuit this spring, but returned to the majors this summer where he won his first tournament in Gstaad.

The other standout match featured the up-and-coming Dimitrov, who is already being compared to Federer and now has his old coach. The 18 year old beat German Tobias Kamke 6-3 7-5. Kamke was a much better opponent than Petrazzuola and went from being almost blown out to battling back for a competitive match.

In the worst case of tournament evils, Bellucci and Dimitrov now have to play each other in the second round. I do not know why Dimitrov did not receive a wildcard in the first place since he won the US Open juniors title last year. Despite this obvious crime, this should be the match of the week.

Qualifying Draw

Wednesday’s Schedule of Play

(Images: Denise/tennisfiend)