#NextGen Stars Soar Into Second Round Of Roland Garros Qualifying

Day two of qualifying at Roland Garros saw a trio of #NextGen stars win their opening round matches on Tuesday, including Elias Ymer of Sweden, and Russians Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev.

No. 11 seed Ymer moved into the second round of qualifying by defeating Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-3. The Swede successfully qualified for all four Grand Slams last year and will look to replicate that feat this year at Roland Garros. Next up for Ymer is Matteo Donati of Italy.

No. 12 seed Khachanov made his debut at Roland Garros a memorable one by scoring a convincing win over Australian Brydan Klein, 6-3, 6-3. The Russian won his first ATP Challenger Tour title of the year last week in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He’ll now play Jordi Samper-Montana of Spain for a place in the final round of qualifying. 

Rublev, also making his debut at Roland Garros, came out on the winning end of a lengthy battle against Jan Satral of Czech Republic, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4. The 18-year-old has good memories of France, having won his first ATP Challenger Tour title this February in the city of Quimper. Rublev has another tough match waiting for him on Thursday when he plays No. 4 seed Jan-Lennard Struff. 

Both the upset and comeback of the day went to 17-year-old French wild card Geoffrey Blancaneaux, who saved two match points in defeating Hiroki Moriya of Japan, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-1. Federico Gaio of Italy prevailed in what was by far the longest match of the day, hitting a backhand lob winner on match point to advance past Uladzimir Ignatik of Belarus, 7-6(3), 6-7(6), 9-7.

All second-round qualifying matches will take place on Wednesday, with one of the feature matches pitting former Top 10 player Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic against Australian Matthew Barton.