Dart and Jones Through as US Open Qualifying Heats Up at Flushing Meadows
Harriet Dart survived a mid-match wobble to reach the second round of US Open qualifying, beating Jordyn Hazelitt 6-0 6-7 (1-7) 6-1 in New York on Tuesday.
Dart, seeded 29th in the qualifying draw — the seedings that protect higher-ranked players from meeting each other early — raced through the first set without dropping a game, then lost her way in a second-set tiebreak (a one-set shootout when games reach 6-6, won first-to-seven). She regrouped convincingly, conceding just one game in the decider. BBC Sport
Fran Jones had a more straightforward passage, dispatching Italy's Nuria Brancaccio 6-3 6-4. Jones next faces Germany's Mona Barthel, while Dart takes on American 16-year-old Kristina Penickova.
There was disappointment for Jodie Burrage, who fell to Spain's Guiomar Maristany 7-6 (7-1) 6-4, and for Henry Searle, beaten 6-1 6-2 by another American 16-year-old, Michael Antonius.
Antonius's reward is a second-round meeting with former US Open finalist Kei Nishikori, who opened his qualifying campaign with a 6-1 2-6 6-2 win over Austria's Sebastian Ofner. Nishikori reached the final at Flushing Meadows in 2014 and is now battling through qualifying — three rounds a player must survive to earn a spot in the main draw — to get back to the big stage.
Grigor Dimitrov, another established name working his way through the qualifying bracket, eased past Italy's Lorenzo Giustino 6-0 6-3 and will face Kazakhstan's Timofey Skatov next. On the women's side, 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu progressed with a 6-1 6-2 demolition of Dutch qualifier Eva Vedder.
Heather Watson, who also won her opening match, resumes on Wednesday against Spain's Angela Fita Boluda. In the men's draw, British hopefuls Jacob Fearnley, Toby Samuel, Billy Harris, Harry Wendelken and Jack Pinnington Jones all return to second-round action, each one win away from the main tournament.
For tennis fans, this is the quiet before the storm. The qualifying tournament, which began on Monday 24 August at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, is a brutal three-round gauntlet. Win three and you're in the main draw, which starts on Sunday. Lose at any point and you're on a flight home.
What makes this year's qualifying especially compelling is the blend of names. Established tour players like Dimitrov and Nishikori find themselves grinding through matches they would normally skip, while teenagers like Antonius and Penickova are playing with nothing to lose. That mixture is exactly what qualifying delivers — unpredictable scorelines, sudden momentum shifts, and the occasional result that makes you check the draw twice.
