CANADIAN FUTURE STAR DENIS SHAPOVALOV QUALIFIES FOR 2017 U.S. OPEN TENNIS • 40,000 FANS ATTEND QUALIFYING ROUNDS • 8 AMERICANS QUALIFY

Written by: Staff on 26th August 2017

CANADIAN FUTURE STAR DENIS SHAPOVALOV QUALIFIES FOR 2017 U.S. OPEN TENNIS • 40,000 FANS ATTEND QUALIFYING ROUNDS • 8 AMERICANS QUALIFY |

Photo by @usopen via Twitter.

Shapovalov qualifies for U.S. Open, joined in main draw by more unfamiliar names

By Ricky Dimon

Denis Shapovalov, who recently upset Rafael Nadal en route to the Rogers Cup semifinals, successfully qualified for the U.S. Open on Friday. Shapovalov recovered from a set deficit to beat Jan Satral 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-3 in exactly two hours.

The 18-year-old Canadian is already up to No. 69 in the world, but he had to qualify because his ranking was not high enough at the entry deadline. Qualifiers were placed in the main draw on Friday evening and Shapovalov has an intriguing opener on his hands, as he is set to go up against Danill Medvedev of Russia. Medvedev is just one year older than Shapovalov at 21 and he has already climbed to 53rd in the world.

Other qualifiers will be unconcerned with whom they will face on either Monday or Tuesday. Instead, they are just happy to be there. A whopping 10 men who qualified will be making their U.S. Open main-draw debuts. Half of those 10 are in the main draw of a major for the first time ever. That list includes Darian King of Barbados, Vaclav Safranek of the Ukraine, Maximilian Marterer of Germany, Evan King of the United States, and fellow American J.C. Aragone. King (Michigan) and Aragone (Virginia) are college products.

Shapovalov and the aforementioned five are joined in the field of 128 by J.P. Smith, Mikhail Kukushkin, Stefano Travaglia, Adrian Menendez-Maceiras, Nicolas Mahut, Tim Smyczek, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, Cameron Norrie, Vincent Millot, and Radu Albot.

Aragone held off Akira Santillan 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Smyczek, no stranger to appearances the main draws of slams, took care of Peter Polansky 6-3, 6-4. An American was guaranteed success when Michigan’s King face Michael Mmoh, with the former getting the job done 6-3, 6-3.

Speaking of all-American affairs, Smyczek will go up against fellow American Sam Querrey on Tuesday. Querrey recently advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals before falling to Marin Cilic in four sets. King also has a tough first-rounder on his plate in the form of French Open quarterfinalist Pablo Carreno Busta. If healthy, Kevin Anderson will be an extremely difficult test for Aragone.

Anderson vs. Aragone is an all-college contest, as Anderson starred at the University of Illinois.