QUALIFYING RECAP: AUGER-ALIASSIME, FOUR AMERICANS INTO MAIN DRAW
By Tucker Verdi
Miami Gardens, FL — Following the Tuesday rain, Wednesday was a packed day for qualifiers as all 20 second round matches had to be played to determine the final 10 participants in each singles main draw.
Six Americans took to the court to start Day 3 at the Miami Open. Four were able to advance, all of them winning their second round match-ups in straight sets. Jessica Pegula defeated Aranxta Rus of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-0; Taylor Townsend took down Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-1, 6-4, and Sachia Vickery beat Iga Swiatek 7-6(2), 6-4.
Reilly Opelka was the only American man to qualify among the early batch of matches, going past Marcel Granollers of Spain by a score of 6-3, 7-6(4). Lorenzo Sonego of Italy defeated Mackenzie McDonald 7-5, 6-4, and Mikael Ymer of Sweden fended off Noah Rubin 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.
Other early qualifying results for men’s singles include the young Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime defeating Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 7-6(1), 6-2, and Lukas Lacko of Slovakia advancing on a walkover after Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan pulled out of their match due to injury.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga fell in the second round of qualifying to Pablo Cuevas 4-6, 4-6 in his return from a knee injury that caused him to miss most of the 2018 season. Tsonga will not be in the main draw in Miami for the third year in a row, after missing the 2017 and 2018 tournaments with injuries.
In other women’s singles qualifying, Kaia Kanepi of Estonia went past Tímea Babos of Hungary 6-3, 6-4, Romanian Monica Niculescu defeated Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova 6-2, 6-4, and Laura Siegemund of Germany defeated Polona Hercog of Slovenia 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Find the full list of results here.
