Young guns and well-known veterans: Who’s who in the Australian Open men’s singles qualifying draw
Qualifying for the men’s singles at the Australian Open gets under way, with some intriguing clashes in store.
SeybothWild
The Australian Open men’s singles qualifying competition begins in Doha, with a fascinating field taking to the court in their efforts to win one of 16 places available for the Melbourne main draw.
1 day until #AO2021 qualifying ☝️
Who will book their spot in the main draw? #AusOpen
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 9, 2021
There are some up-and-coming talents who feature in the draw alongside some more established faces plus one or two surprising entrants.
We take a look at who’s in the line-up.
Young guns
Two of the most recent junior Australian Open champions are in qualifying.
2018 champion Sebastian Korda is currently ranked at No 118 in the world. Aged 20, the American came through qualifying to reach the fourth round of Roland-Garros in 2020. He is also the son of 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda.
Lorenzo Musetti won the boys’ tournament in 2019 and had a stellar 2020 season, winning on the Challenger tour and racking up main draw wins, including an impressive defeat of Stan Wawrinka on clay in Rome.
Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild, the 2018 US Open junior champion, has not made it to the Melbourne main draw before. He is seeded sixth in qualifying.
It’s also worth looking out for 17-year-old Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, the ATP Tour’s Newcomer of the Year and currently ranked No 141 in the world, and 20-year-old Hugo Gaston of France, who won the junior doubles title in Melbourne three years ago.
Veterans
There are lots of familiar faces in the qualifying draw – that includes Ivo Karlovic, who became the oldest singles match winner at the Australian Open since Ken Rosewall when he reached the second round of the main draw last year at the age of 40.
He is joined by 2007 Melbourne quarter-finalist Tommy Robredo, former world No 18 Andreas Seppi, former world No 10 Ernests Gulbis and former world No 12 Viktor Troicki.
26-year-old Grégoire Barrère of France is the top seed in qualifying; he made it to the second round of the main draw last year. Germany’s Dustin Brown gets a spot in qualifying thanks to his protected ranking, and his compatriot Mischa Zverev takes a wildcard.
Denis Istomin, the 34-year-old Russian, also joins the field. He reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2017 – beating Novak Djokovic in round two. Andrey Kuznetsov, formerly Russia’s top male player, enters qualifying too; his best Grand Slam record is in Melbourne, having reached the fourth round in 2016.
Aussies
There are eleven Australians in qualifying, seeking a place at their home Slam. Bernard Tomic, Andrew Harris, Max Purcell enter alongside eight wildcards: Blake Mott, Jason Kubler, Akira Santillan, Tristan Schoolkate, Rinky Hijikata, Dane Sweeny, John-Patrick Smith and Matthew Ebden.
Full qualifying field
First qualifier to come from this bracket
- Gregoire Barrere [1] v Zdenek Kolar
- Maxime Janvier v Lukas Rosol
- Lukas Lacko v Frederico Ferreira Silva
- Matteo Viola v Nikola Milojevic [18]
Second qualifier
- Hugo Dellien [2] v Alejandro Tabilo
- Andrew Harris v Ruben Bemelmans
- Facundo Mena v Evgeny Karlovskiy
- Filip Horansky v Carlos Alcaraz [21]
Third qualifier
- Aslan Karatsev [3] v Brandon Nakashima
- Hugo Gaston v Max Purcell
- Rudolf Molleker v Peter Polansky
- Alexandre Muller v Federico Gaio [17]
Fourth qualifier
- Denis Kudla [4] v Elliot Benchetrit
- Dane Sweeny [WC] v Marius Copil
- Matthew Ebden [WC] v Jason Kubler [WC]
- Sergiy Stakhovsky v Bernabe Zapata Miralles [28]
Fifth qualifier
- Taro Daniel [5] v Roberto Cid Subervi
- Marco Trungelliti v Maximilian Marterer
- Blake Mott [PR] v Elias Ymer
- Akira Santillan [WC] v Marc-Andrea Husler [27]
Sixth qualifier
- Thiago Seyboth Wild [6] v Robin Haase
- Gian Marco Moroni v Mischa Zverev [WC]
- Benjamin Bonzi v Quentin Halys
- Cem Ilkel v Peter Gojowczyk [26]
Seventh qualifier
- Damir Dzumhur [7] v Emilio Gomez
- Julian Lenz v Renzo Olivo
- Illya Marchenko v Kimmer Coppejans
- Arthur De Greef [PR] v Mohamed Safwat [31]
Eighth qualifier
- Antoine Hoang [8] v Tommy Robredo
- Arthur Rinderknech v Daniel Masur
- Li Zhe v Thai-Son Kwiatkowski
- Michael Mmoh v Danilo Petrovic [24]
Ninth qualifier
- Evgeny Donskoy [9] v Zhang Zhizhen
- Mats Moraing v Mikael Torpegaard
- Tomas Machac v Joao Domingues
- Felipe Meligeni Alves v Martin Klizan [30]
Tenth qualifier
- Facundo Bagnis [10] v Ramkumar Ramanathan
- Wu Tung-lin v Jay Clarke
- Alessandro Giannessi v Mario Vilella Martinez
- Guillermo Garcia Lopez v Francisco Cerundolo
Eleventh qualifier
- Cedrik-Marcel Steve [11] v Thomas Fabbiano
- Rinky Hijikata [WC] v Christopher Eubanks
- Andrey Kuznetsov [PR] v Ulises Blanch
- Viktor Troicki v Jurij Rodionov [23]
Twelfth qualifier
- Prajnesh Gunneswaran [12] v Brayden Schnur
- Liam Broady v Constant Lestienne
- Mitchell Krueger v Enzo Couacaud
- Roman Safiullin v Oscar Otte [20]
Thirteenth qualifier
- Lorenzo Musetti [13] v Botic van de Zandschulp
- Joao Menezes v Andrea Collarini
- Mathias Bourgue v Ernesto Escobedo
- Ernests Gulbis v Blaz Rola [32]
Fourteenth qualifier
- Jozef Kovalik [14] v Bernard Tomic
- Guido Andreozzi v Tristan Schoolkate [WC]
- Harry Bourchier [WC] v Tallon Griekspoor
- John-Patrick Smith [WC] v Paolo Lorenzi [25]
Fifteenth qualifier
- Henri Laaksonen [15] v Tobias Kamke
- Alexey Vatutin v Steven Diez
- Borna Gojo v Sebastian Ofner
- Denis Istomin v Lorenzo Giustino [29]
Sixteenth qualifier
- Go Soeda [16] v Maxime Cressy
- Tatsuma Ito v Yannick Maden
- Hiroki Moriya v Dustin Brown [PR]
- Roberto Marcora v Carlos Taberner [22]
