Fourth seed Bjorn Fratangelo has successfully made his way to the final round of qualifying for Australian Open 2018 on a rain-interrupted afternoon at Melbourne Park on Friday.
MORE: All the scores from Day 3 qualifying action
He joins eight other Americans who still remained in qualifying contention when play began including top seed Taylor Fritz, 11th seed Ernesto Escobedo, Christian Harrison, Stefan Kozlov, Tommy Paul, Kevin King, Denis Kudla and Mackenzie McDonald – who has been dominating his early matches.
Fratangelo, the world No.107, was relatively untroubled in his match against last year’s Australian Open junior boys champion, Hungarian Zsombor Piros, securing an early break and maintaining his advantage to take the first set in 32 minutes.
MORE: Full men’s qualifying singles draw
Once he settled in however, the teenage wildcard took it right up to his more experienced opponent and there was no quarter given until rain stopped play at 4-5 in the second set.
On resumption, Fratangelo quickly snuffed out any remaining hope for the Hungarian, breaking serve immediately to earn the 6-3 6-4 victory and move one step closer to a main draw berth.
“I felt pretty good out there from the start. Conditions were different today – it was a lot more humid, which made things a little bit slower,” said Fratangelo, who admitted he went in cold against Piros. “I didn’t know his game at all, but I knew that he won juniors here last year. He’s definitely a good little player.
“The rain delays were tricky, but I only had to sit through the first two and I was done. Now I’m resting up and waiting for tomorrow.”
Fratangelo knows this territory well: this is the fifth time he has reached the final round of qualifying for a Grand Slam tournament, including the 2016 and 2017 Australian Opens. On all four occasions, he has advanced to the main draw.
“I’m just happy to get through and to be in the final round of qualifying again, looking forward to my next match,” Fratangelo added. “For me it’s just another match – I’ve qualified for a lot of slams, so tomorrow’s going to be no different. I know how I’m going to feel mentally and emotionally, so I’ve just got to try and control that and play it like another match.”
Fratangelo, 24, would have welcomed the result after an indifferent start to 2018, losing in the first round of the Playford ATP Challenger to Australian wildcard Marc Polmans. He now faces Quentin Halys (No.22), who wrapped up a 4-6 6-3 6-0 victory over Pedja Krstin of Serbia with a swift two-game surge from 4-0 in the third set on Margaret Court Arena, the last action of the day.
In other results on a rain-affected Friday, Indian Yuki Bhambri, the No.15 seed, had no trouble in dispatching Spaniard Carlos Taberner 6-0 6-2, while Harrison couldn't join compatriot Fratangelo in the final qualifying round, the 23-year-old going down 6-2 7-5 to Canadian 26th seed Peter Polansky.
A handful of matches were still in progress when play was finally halted for the day on the outside courts after 10pm Melbourne time.
American top seed Taylor Fritz was down 3-4 on serve against Mathias Bourgue of France, while Australia’s Bernard Tomic was scheduled to play on Show Court 3 after the match between Norwegian 25th seed Casper Ruud and Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan, Ruud leading 3-2 in the opening set.