Lola Radivojevic Reaches US Open Semis, Djere Falls
Radivojevic beat a Swede and moved closer to the US Open main draw, Lajovic advanced after his opponent retired with cramps, and Djere was eliminated already in the first qualifying round.
Dusan Lajovic was leading 3:1 in the third set of his US Open qualifying match when play stopped, but not because of anything he did. Sunwoo Kwon was hit by heavy cramps, called for the physio, tried to continue, and then realized he could not even stand up. He retired, handing the Serbian a spot in the second qualifying round after almost two hours on court, with the score reading 4:6, 7:5, 3:1.
Getting there was not easy. Lajovic dropped the first set and then spent a long stretch unable to break the Korean, who saved three break points in the fifth game of the second set and two more in the seventh. The turning point came in the 12th game, when Lajovic finally broke serve to go up 7:5. From there he kept the momentum into the start of the third set, until Kwon’s back and legs gave out.
It is the Serbian’s first meaningful result at a Grand Slam in some time. He missed the main draw at three consecutive majors, and the one time he did get through at Wimbledon, it cost him a first-round exit. He is now ranked 167th in the world, and his next opponent in the second qualifying round will be the winner of the match between Germany’s Henri Squire and Spain’s David Djordje Sancis.
Radivojevic One Step Closer to a Big Result
While Lajovic was fighting both his opponent and his own fatigue, Lola Radivojevic settled her match more calmly, though not necessarily more easily. She beat Sweden’s Kajsa Rinaldo Person, ranked 230th in the WTA rankings, 6:4, 6:3, in one hour and 26 minutes. Radivojevic, the world number 150, broke her opponent’s serve five times, while Rinaldo Person took three of her service games.
Her next obstacle on the way to the main draw will be the winner of an all-Russian matchup between Kristina Lyutova and Tatiana Prozorova. According to the brief we received, Radivojevic is two rounds away from the US Open main draw.
That is where the accounts of the same result start to diverge. Kurir and Nova report that Radivojevic’s win over Rinaldo Person put her into the semifinals of qualifying, while other outlets describe the same victory as a passage into the second qualifying round. Which of the two figures is correct will become clear in the coming days, once the US Open’s official schedule and the name of her next opponent are confirmed.
Djere Falls in the First Round
Laslo Djere did not have the same luck. He was eliminated in the first qualifying round, losing 5:7, 0:6 in one hour and 15 minutes to Alexander Miller, a scoreline that says a lot about how the match unfolded. The real fight came in the first set, and once Djere let that slip, he did not win a single game in the second.
Serbia still has three confirmed representatives in the US Open main draw: Novak Djokovic, Miomir Kecmanovic, and Hamad Medjedovic. We wrote earlier this week about the main draw and Djokovic’s first-round opponent, Albot; this qualifying round is the first chance to see which other Serbian players, men or women, will join them.
Ristic Advances, Kostovic Eliminated
On the women’s side, the picture is mixed. Mia Ristic, only 20 years old, beat American Ajana Akli 6:3, 1:6, 6:4 after two hours and 18 minutes of battle, and as the world number 195 that result sends her through to the next round of qualifying. Teodora Kostovic was not as fortunate: she lost to the Netherlands’ Arantxa Rus, ranked 203rd in the WTA rankings, 6:4, 4:6, 4:6, leaving her one step short of the next round.
The US Open main draw runs from August 30 to September 13, and until then qualifying still has two more rounds to go for both the men and the women. Lajovic and Radivojevic are currently Serbia’s closest candidates to join the main draw, and both play their next matches in New York in the coming days. Only once those matches are played will it be clear whether Serbia will have three representatives in the main draw of the season’s last Grand Slam, or more.
