#NextGenATP Alcaraz, Brooksby One Win From Roland Garros Main Draw
Last year, Carlos Alcaraz lost in the first round of qualifying at Roland Garros. This edition, the #NextGenATP star is one win from reaching the main draw on the terre battue for the first time.
Alcaraz defeated Italian Andrea Pellegrino 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the final round of qualifying in Paris. The 18-year-old has lost a total of nine games through the first two rounds after beating Slovakian veteran Lukas Lacko on Monday.
The World No. 94, who is the youngest player in the Top 100 of the FedEx ATP Rankings, will next play Chilean Alejandro Tabilo, who eliminated Indian Sumit Nagal 6-3, 6-3.
Another #NextGenATP star, American Jenson Brooksby, rallied past Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 to move to within a win of qualifying. The 20-year-old, who did not play a professional match in 2020, has already won three ATP Challenger Tour titles this season. He owns the second-highest winning percentage (90.4%) through the first four months of a Challenger season.
Brooksby will play World No. 329 Evan Furness in the third round of qualifying after the Frenchman beat American Denis Kudla 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-4. The home favourite made his first Challenger semi-final in Portugal this April.
Read Brooksby Challenger Q&A
One match lasted three hours and 39 minutes, with 12th seed Hugo Dellien battling past Slovenian Blaz Kavcic 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 6-4. The Bolivian is trying to compete in the main draw here for the third consecutive year. In two other clashes that lasted nearly three hours, Buenos Aires finalist Francisco Cerundolo clawed past American Thai-Son Kwiatkowski 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(5) and 16th seed Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru ousted Austrian Sebastian Ofner 6-7(10), 7-5, 6-3.
Second seed Daniel Elahi Galan continued his impressive clay-court season with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph against Turkey’s Altug Celikbilek. The Colombian successfully qualified for Roland Garros last year and advanced to the third round of the main draw.
American Mackenzie McDonald, who defeated Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis in the first round of qualifying, beat Argentine Renzo Olivo 6-3, 6-4 and he will face another Argentine, Marco Trungelliti, for a place in the main draw. Former junior Grand Slam champions Bjorn Fratangelo (2011 Roland Garros), Kimmer Coppejans (2012 Roland Garros) and Roman Safiullin (2015 Australian Open) also advanced.