Thirty-six Americans, 20 on the men’s side, were primed to start the U.S. Open qualifying on Tuesday, and while four of them reached the second round, most of the day’s matches were postponed after rain pelted the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center much of the afternoon.
Reaching the second round for the U.S. were No. 22 seed Robert Kendrick, Bobby Reynolds, young Ryan Harrison, and, in the women’s quallies, 17-year-old Sloane Stephens.
In addition, Chase Buchanan goes back on court Wednesday with a 5-2 lead in the third set over No. 11 seed Federico Del Bonis of Argentina.
Six Americans lost — Greg Ouellette, Johannes Van Overbeek and Andrea Collarini in the men’s tournament and Alexa Glatch, Alison Riske and Alexandra Mueller. Mueller had come into the qualifying event with some publicity after winning a series of matches in the USTA’s nationwide grassroots tournament called the US Open National Playoffs, in which the winners received wild cards into the Open qualifying.
Blake Strode won that promotional tournament on the men’s side and he’ll play his first-round match today.
Of the 20 U.S. men in the 128-draw qualifying, eight received wild cards. Seven of the 16 U.S. women in the quallies entered with wild cards.
Marsal Ilhan of Turkey and Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbechstan are seeded No. 1.