Sixteen men won three matches over the last week in the 2023 US Open Qualifying Tournament to punch their tickets into the main draw of the year's final major.
Three Americans—Emilio Nava, Zachary Svajda and Nicolas Moreno De Alboran—will join their compatriots in the main draw of their home major.
Emilio Nava
Nava took out Texas All-American Eliot Spizzirri in the final round after the Longhorn was forced to retire in the third set. Nava, 21, was a two-time junior Grand Slam finalist in 2019, at Roland Garros and the US Open.
HIGHLIGHTS: Nava def. Spizzirri, Qualifying Round 3
Zachary Svajda
Svadja, of La Jolla, Calif., is a former USTA Boys’ 18s national singles champion. He will be making his third appearance in Flushing Meadows after first in 2019 and 2021. In the final round of qualifying, he cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Marc Polmans--a far cry from the two three-set epics he played prior.
Nicolas Moreno De Alboran
Moreno de Alboran, who was born in New York City before moving to London as a teenager, won the toughest tussle of qualifying, a 3-hour, 7-minute final-round marathon to oust Joris De Loore of Belgium, 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(12). Their deciding-set 14-12 tiebreak was the longest of men’s qualifying, and helped earn the former University of California, Santa Barbara star his first-ever appearance in the main draw of a major.
Joining the home favorites are:
Droguet, 22, of France, is currently ranked No. 172 in singles and will be making his first major main-draw appearance. He had an impressive run in qualifying, taking out No. 2 seed Cristian Garin (a former Top 20 player), American Tennys Sandgren, and Kimmer Coppejans 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 in the final round.
Sho Shimabukuro
Shimabukuro, No. 159 in the ATP rankings and a member of Japan’s Davis Cup team, will be making his second straight major appearance from qualifying after a final-round win over Liam Broady of Great Britain, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The 26-year-old first broke the Top 200 in May.
Stefano Travaglia
Travaglia, who currently sits at No. 234 in the ATP rankings, has made the third round of Roland Garros (2020) before, will be making his 15th appearance at a major event, and fifth US Open. He’s 1-4 in career matches in New York, making the second round in 2017.
Hsu Yu Hsiou
Hsu, a 24-year-old from Chinese Taipei, will be making his second-ever main draw appearance at a major, after debuting earlier this year at the Australian Open. Hsu took out France’s Benoit Paire in the second round of qualifying, and earned his spot with a final-round 7-5, 6-3 victory over American Aidan Mayo. As a junior, he won three of the four Grand Slams in doubles in 2017.
Hugo Gaston
Gaston, one of the higher-ranked players in qualifying (No. 98), took the hard route to the main draw winning 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 over Lukas Klein of Slovakia. His previous best finish at a major was a fourth-round appearance at Roland Garros in 2020.
Borna Gojo
Gojo, currently No. 106 in singles, will make his third-ever slot into a main draw, after a second round finish at Roland Garros in 2022 and a direct entry into Wimbledon in 2023.. The 6-foot-5 Croatian is known for his huge serve.\
Jakub Mensik
Mensik will make his first-ever appearance in a major main draw at age 17. The 2022 junior Australian Open finalist backed up a 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 opening win over former Top 10 player Fabio Fognini with two more wins, and also came from a set down in his second win over Leandro Riedi.
The 28-year-old Couacaud, ranked No. 182, will be making his sixth major appearance and second straight in the main draw of the US Open. He upset No. 1 seed Jaume Munar in Round 1 of qualifying, and was also impressive in a 7-6(0), 6-2 win over former world No. 39 Mikhail Kukushkin.
Felipe Meligeni Alves
The 25-year-old from Brazil will be making his Grand Slam debut thanks to a 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 upset of No. 3 seed Federico Coria in the final round. Meligini Alves is the nephew of former Roland Garros semifinalist Fernando Meligini. He’s currently ranked No. 170 in the ATP rankings.
Timofey Skatov
Skatov, 22, won all three of his qualifying matches in straight sets, to make his third-ever appearance at a major event (2022, Australian Open, 2023 Roland Garros). Currently ranked No. 128, Skatov was a former junior world No. 1 (2019).
Daniel will be making his 7th main draw at the US Open, after three qualifying victories. Daniel, who has one ATP World title to his name (Istanbul 2018), is currently ranked inside the top 100, and has a career high of No. 64, and is a two-time Olympian for Japan (2016, 2021).
Dominic Stricker
Stricker will be making his third straight appearance in a major this year. Pablo Llamas Ruiz (Spain) had Stricker on the ropes in the second round of qualifying, 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-6(11), before Stricker prevailed. He’s currently ranked No. 127 in the world, and will face Alexei Popyrin in the first round in a rematch of their WImbledon first-round encounter, which Stricker won in an upset.
Otto Virtanen
Virtanen won all of his matches in three sets in qualifying, including a final-round win over Shang Juncheng of China, 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-1. He’s currently ranked No. 134 in the world and will be making his first-ever main draw major appearance at the US Open. He’s a former Wimbledon boys’ doubles champion (2018).
HIGHLIGHTS: Virtanen def. Shang, Qualifying Round 3
