Austria’s current number two also jumped the second hurdle to qualify in New York.
Jurij Rodionov is back on track after his eight-match losing streak. The 25-year-old qualified for the third and final round of the US Open in New York on Wednesday evening after CEST. The Lower Austrian (ATP 201) also defeated Taiwanese 20th seed Chun Hsin Tseng (ATP 115) 6:4, 7:6 (5) after a 1:54-hour battle. This means the red-white-red left-hander could follow her ÖTV colleagues Sebastian Offner and Dominik Thiem (wildcard) and Julia Graber (special ranking) into the main event on the Grand Slam scene at Flushing Meadows. Rodionov will now play in the 128 main stage against this year’s finalist Kyrian Jacquet (ATP 209) at the ATP 125 Challenger in Salzburg on Thursday at 5:00pm CEST. The Frenchman saved a match point to defeat South Korean Cheong-San Hong (ATP 154) 4:6, 6:3, 7:5. Draw for major sectors will be held at 6:00 PM.
“I felt good on the court for the first time in weeks/months,” Rodionov said on Monday (local time) after a 6:4, 6:2 opening win over the Serbian former world number 26. Filip Krajinovic (ATP 634) expressed relief on his official Facebook fan page. This positive feeling may have continued in his second appearance. Cheng started the match well with a 2-0 lead, on game point to make it 3-0, Rodionov immediately attacked as the receiver and broke back in the ninth game of the first set to decide the match. In the second round, the Austrian Davis Cup player was usually close to the break and missed three chances in the first game, but at 4:5 and 30:40 he was suddenly faced with a set point. However, ex-professional Gilbert Schaller’s protégé was able to hold this back and break the next game 6:5, but was unable to break even after that. He had the better of the tiebreak and served his second match point. In his third appearance in the Big Apple since 2021 and an opening loss in 2023, Rodionov is in a qualifying final for the second time and could expect to make his main draw debut again.
