At the beginning of day five, there were two American male players in the singles draw: Ryan Harrison and Tennys Sandgren. It was not the two players many of us thought would still be in the draw. Two of the three seeded American men did not get past the first round. At the end of the day, there is only one American male player standing in the singles draw and it is twenty-six year old Tennys Sandgren; the 97th ranked player is flying the flag for America down under. The American turned professional seven years ago and although he has never made it to the final of an ATP World Tour tournament, he has won on the Challenger Tour circuit. Sandgren is putting it all together and having his best ever showing at a major. This is a great opportunity for him to go even further is he can get by unseeded, Maximilian Marterer.
The American women are doing better in singles with three players still in the draw at the end of day five: Madison Keys, Lauren Davis and Bernarda Pera. Like the men’s draw, Davis and Pera are not the Americans many of us would have expected to still be in the draw. Pera did not even make it out of the qualifying rounds, so many of us did not expect to see her in the main draw; however, she is making the most of her opportunity. She took out the number nine seed Johanna Konta in the previous round and will face another seeded player tonight, 20th seed, Barbora Strycova.
Davis has made it to the third round of the majors before, at the Australia Open and Wimbledon; however, if she hopes to go further this year, she will have to get by the number one ranked player, Simona Halep. Fresh in Keys’ memory is her run at the last major of last season and she is looking quite ready to get back to another major final. Like Davis, she will have to get by a dangerous Romanian, Ana Bogdan.
At the end of day six, how many Americans will still be in the singles draw?
SOURCE OF IMAGE: Zimbio.com (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images AsiaPac – Tennys Sandgren at the 2018 AO)
