Excellent day for the Navy in the run-up to the US Open, especially in the women’s competition, in which the three Spanish women won and qualified for their first Grand Slam. Nuria Parrizas, who would have passed as a play-off even if she had lost, Rebeka Masarova and Cristina Bucsa solved their complicated clashes with victories. In the men’s draw, Bernabé Zapata fell, but will enter as a lucky loser due to the last minute loss of Gilles Simon, being the second best ranked among the losers in the third round of qualifying.
With these classifications, there will be 11 Spaniards (Carreño, Bautista, Davidovich, Ramos, Alcaraz, Munar, Andújar, Martínez, Carballés, López, Taberner and Zapata) and seven Spanish (Muguruza, Badosa, Sorribes, Suárez (with protected ranking), Parrizas, Bucsa and Masarova) in the main draw. In the second case, it is the highest number in a major since they played eight at Wimbledon in 2013. (Medina, Torró, Soler, Arruabarrena, Cabeza, Muguruza, Suárez and Domínguez).
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Nuria Parrizas.
Darren Carroll / USTA
Parrizas, a 30-year-old from Granada and 94th in the world, played an impeccable match against the Hungarian, 30 and 191st, Reka Luca Jani, whom he beat 6-3 and 6-2 in 79 minutes. Nuria had been on the verge of playing a major five times, two at the Australian Open, two at Roland Garros and one at Wimbledon between 2020 and 2021. She is in her prime and a few months ago she lifted her first WTA title, a 125 in Bastad, where she beat Belarusian Govortsova in the final.
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Cristina Bucsa.
Darren Carroll / USTA
Masarova, born in Basel 22 years ago and 231st in the ranking, starred in a great comeback against the Romanian Jaqueline Cristian, 23 years old and 142nd, which she beat 2-6, 6-2 and 6-4 at 2:06. Rebeka has only played six WTA matches, with a balance of 4-2 and a hopeful breakthrough in 2016, in the Gstaad tournament, in which she reached the semifinals, in which she lost against the Swiss Viktorija Golubic at the age of 15. And he had never played a major before. Bucsa, a Cantabrian of Moldovan origin (born in Chisinau 23 years ago) and 161st, resisted the attacks of the French Ocean Dodin (24th and 102nd), who won by a double 6-4 in 86 minutes. With more experience on the circuit, Cristina had already tried to get into a Slam since the previous one on seven occasions, two at the Australian Open, two at Roland Garros, two at Wimbledon and one at the US Open between 2019 and 2021.
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Bernabé Zapata.
Pete Staples / USTA
Zapata, by the hair
Bernabé Zapata could not get rid of the tough German Oscar Otte (28 years and 144th in the world), who won 6-4, 3-6 and 6-3 in 1:59. The 24-year-old and 117th from Valencia was disappointed, but as he was the fifth seed and the second-highest ranked loser in the third round of the qualifying round, he will enter the main draw thanks to Simon’s resignation. Kazakh Mihail Kukushkin, who also fell, will occupy the place left by Canadian Milos Raonic.