The men’s singles qualifying draw for the US Open was announced on Monday, with India’s top-three singles players, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Yuki Bhambri, and Prajnesh Gunneswaran featuring in the 128-man draw.
Bhambri and Gunneswaran have been both placed in the top-half, while the Indian No 1 Ramanathan has been drawn in the second-half. None of the three have been seeded and will face difficult opening matches.
Bhambri will take on the 22nd seed Go Soeda of Japan on Tuesday. The 32-year-old is ranked 131st in the world, 27 places above the Indian. If Bhambri does get past his tricky opening round, he could face seventh seeded Alexander Bublik in the final qualifying round.
Meanwhile, the left-handed Gunneswaran will play 24th seeded German Yannick Hanfmann in his first round on Tuesday as well. Hanfmann is ranked 133rd in the world, 92 spots above Gunneswaran. As with Bhambri, the draw also gets progressively narrower for Gunneswaran with a likely opponent in the fourth seeded Sergiy Stakhovsky awaiting in the final qualifying round.
In the bottom-half of the draw, the 156th ranked Ramanathan hasn’t been drawn to face any seeded player. However, he does face a challenging contest against veteran Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu. In case of his win, Ramanathan could then end up meeting yet another French player in the 14th seeded Nicolas Mahut in the third qualifying round.
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