- Seeds out Round two: (10, 17, 19, 20, 24, 25, 28,)
He has been touted as the future star of clay tennis. Yet the young Norwegian Casper Ruud suffered a disappointingly early exit in the second round of French Open Qualifying.
The teenager was beaten 7-6, 6-4 by Bordeaux Challenger quarter-finalist Maxime Janvier. It is the second time in a row that Ruud has failed to qualify for a grand slam main draw. He was beaten by Reilly Opelka in Australian Open Qualifying.
Opelka was in action today and again the tall American flirted with an exit. He lost the first set and faced match point against former Top 30 player Leonardo Mayer before winning 5-7, 7-6, 6-3. This came after a tight win against Daniel Munoz de la Nava in the first round. He faces Nicolas Jarry after the Chilean defeated Dmitry Popko 6-4, 6-3.
There was though a second round exit for a number of other Americans. Tim Smyczek fought hard against twenty-second seed Guido Andreozzi before succumbing 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. The American had recently recovered from a leg strain.
Stefan Kozlov lost 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 to Sergiy Stakhovsky, and Mackenzie McDonald fell to Teymuraz Gabashvili 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. There was some success for Americans as Bjorn Fratangelo edged fellow American Bradley Klahn 6-4, 7-6, and Denis Kudla beat Ricardo Ojeda Lara 6-4, 6-3.
Kudla will face retiring French veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu in the final round after the sixteenth seed beat Alejandro Gonzalez 7-5, 6-1.
Top seed Marius Copil had no trouble in easing to the qualifying round, defeating Ilya Ivashka 6-2, 6-2. Copil will face Peter Gojowczyk in a section that went according to seeding.
Daniel Masur followed up his excellent win over Adam Pavlasek with a strong win against in-form Filip Krajinovic. He will face Arthur de Greef.
Taro Daniel against Andrey Rublev promises to be one of the most intriguing matches of the final qualification round. Rublev edged Mirza Basic 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 and Daniel eased past Matija Pecotic 6-3, 6-2.
Fifth seed Norbert Gombos remained perfect with another straight sets win. He defeated Yasutaka Uchiyama 7-6, 6-3. He faces the unseeded Jozef Kovalik who knocked out twentieth seed Luca Vanni 6-4, 6-4.
The next section sees no seeds take part in the final match as Stefanos Tsitsipas faces Oscar Otte. Tsitsipas continued his strong run with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Gleb Sakharov, and Otte defeated twenty-eighth seed Laslo Djere 7-5, 2-6, 7-6.
Roberto Quiroz will take part in the final round. He defeated American Dennis Novikov who was unable to follow up his excellent win over Henri Laaksonen. Quiroz will face Maxime Hamou who surprised seventeenth seed Blaz Kavcic 7-6, 7-5.
Marco Cecchinato faces Simone Bolelli in an all Italian affair. Cecchinato thrashed Salvatore Caruso 6-2, 6-1, and Bolelli edged twenty-fourth seed Maximillian Marterer 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Thirteenth seed Guido Pella survived young Aussie Marc Polmans comeback 6-3, 6-7, 6-4. He’ll face Ruud’s conqueror Maxime Janvier.
Stefano Napolitano won a battle of two very in form players by downing Marton Fucsovics 6-1, 6-7, 7-6. He will face Alexander Bublik who beat twenty-fifth seed Peter Polansky 6-4, 2-6, 7-6.
