Former NCAA star Sarkissian to make ATP Main Draw debut in Bogota (Weekend Qualifying Wrap Up Bogota/Bastad)
Steen Kirby and Adam Addicott, Tennis Atlantic

ATP Bogota Qualifying

2015 Claro Open Colombia Qualifying Recap

2014 NCAA championship runner-up Alexander Sarkissian, a graduate of Pepperdine University, highlights the list of qualifiers for the ATP Bogota main draw. Three other players booked their spots in the draw via qualifying on Monday alongside him.

Sarkissian, who has been fantastic this season, posting a 43-15 record at primarily the futures level, with a few challengers mixed in, including Gimcheon where he took the title on hard courts, beat Juan Montes and Facundo Mena by a combined score of 24-7 in games. The California native will now face the unseeded John Millman in a winnable round 1 match, as he makes his ATP main draw debut. Given his results since turning pro, and his success in college, I’m sure we will see more of him in the future at the ATP level.

26 year old doubles specialist Marcelo Demoliner,a Brazilian, will also be making a surprise appearance in an ATP main draw. Demoliner beat Jesus Francisco Felix, Marco Chiudinelli, a Swiss veteran, and former GA Tech product Kevin King to qualify. His first round match will be against Illya Marchenko, another unseeded hard courter.

23 year old Alejandro Gomez will be making his ATP main draw debut in front of supportive home fans, Gomez beat Andres Molteni in a close three setter in round 2, and prior to that beat Felipe Rojas in straights. He completed qualifying with a routine win over Juan Ignacio Londero. Gomez is unlikely to find much success in his debut as his first round opponent is the accomplished veteran Marcos Baghdatis.

Last but not least, qualifying top seed and grass court specialist Matt Ebden also found success on the quick courts in Bogota. He beat doubles specialist Colin Fleming in three sets, and then beat Juan Sebastian Gomez to qualify. Ebden will get a winnable round 1 match against Tatsuma Ito to start off with.

ATP Bastad Qualifying

2015 Skistar Swedish Open Qualifying

Top seed Paul-Henri Mathieu was one of four men to successfully qualify for the main draw of the 68th Swedish Open, which takes place on clay.

The Frenchman was impressive throughout the three rounds as he didn’t drop a set. After beating wild card Daniel Windahl and Australia’s Peter Luczak, who came out of retirement to play qualifying for fun, Mathieu set up a final round match against 5th seed Giovanni Lapentti. The Ecuadorian player is currently ranked 75 places below Mathieu. Lapentti, who hasn’t played in a Grand Slam since the 2009 US Open, best result of 2015 was a runner-up position at the ATP Cali Challenger last May. Mathieu experienced little difficulty as he cruised to a 6-2, 6-3, victory after an hour and 13 minutes.

31-year-old Rogério Dutra Silva qualified for his first ATP tournament main draw since April following a 6-2,6-4, win against Stéphane Robert. The Brazilian is yet to win a title in 2015 but came close in the ATP Milan Challenger, where he was runner up to Federico Delbonis. Prior to Robert, Silva also produced a solid win against tricky opponent Mischa Zverev. Zverev stunned Dominic Thiem and Andreas Seppi last month in Stuttgart but has recently encountered some disappointing results. Silva hasn’t won a main draw ATP level match since Sao Paulo in February 2014.

Andrea Arnaboldi endured a tough final match against Belarus’s Maxim Dubarenco to progress to the main draw. After a close opening set, which consisted of two breaks of service for the Italian, Arnaboldi battled to win 7-6(5), 6-3. The Italian was full of confidence coming into Bastad following his run to the last eight of a Challenger event in Todi, Italy. The 27-year-old justified his wild-card into the Italian event by defeating Victor Hanescu and Andrej Martin before prevailing to Matteo Donati.

Finally Julian Reister was the only man to beat two seeded players during the qualifying competition. In the second round, he produced a 6-3,6-4 win over 4th seed Renzo Olivo to set up a final match with 8th seed Constant Lestienne. World No.334 Lestienne reached his first ATP main draw in Estoril earlier this year. The Frenchman was however no match for Reister as the German won 6-4, 6-3.

Bastad First round matches featuring qualifiers

Julien Reister GER v Alexander Zverev GER – First meeting
Rogerio Dutra Silva BRA v Federico Delbonis ARG – Rematch of the 2015 Milan Challenger final. On that occasion Delbonis won 6-1, 7-6 (6).
Andrea Arnaboldi ITA v Jerzy Janowicz POL – Janowicz won their only previous meeting which was at the 2010 Trani Challenger.
Paul-Henri Mathieu FRA v Jeremy Chardy FRA – Chardy leads the head-to-head 3-1, however, their most recent meeting was in 2012.