This content was published 4 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.
Tennys Sandgren leads an exciting men’s qualifying field at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia which includes former world No. 6 Gilles Simon and two former Roland Garros semi-finalists in Ernests Gulbis and Marco Cecchinato.
Top seed Sandgren, who receives a bye in the first round, will take on the winner of the all-Australian clash between Alexei Popyrin and Luke Saville when he begins his quest for a first main draw spot at the Italian Open.
No.2 seed Simon will face either Italy’s Flavio Cobolli or Germany’s Dominik Koepfer when his campaign gets underway while No.3 seed Aljaz Bedene awaits the winner of the match between Evgeny Donskoy and Jozef Kovalik which takes place on Court 6.
If Cecchinato, who upset Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals at 2018 Roland Garros, and Italian veteran Andreas Seppi both prevail in their opening round encounters against Egor Gerasimov and Bradley Klahn respectively then they will set up an enticing all-Italian second round match. Gulbis, a semi-finalist at the Italian Open in 2010, has been drawn against Australia’s Marc Polmans.
France’s Corentin Moutet, fresh from a third round showing at the US Open, occupies the 15th seed position and will meet Roberto Carballes Baena on Court 6 with a place in the second round of qualifying at stake.
Moutet’s countryman Jeremy Chardy, the No.7 seed, also features in the draw and will play alternate Michael Venus, who is more at home on a doubles court and finished runner-up in the doubles event last year with Raven Klaasen, in the first match on Court 2.
Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, a former world No.7 and five-time titlist on clay, opens his campaign for a main draw place against Damir Dzumhur on Court 2, while veterans Tommy Robredo and Paolo Lorenzi take on Gian Marco Moroni and Federico Coria, the brother of 2004 Roland Garros finalist Guillermo, who lost to Rafael Nadal in the final here in 2005, respectively.
Italian youngster Matteo Gigante, who is making his debut at the Foro Italico, will play Ilya Ivashka, 18-year-old left-hander Giulio Zeppieri will take on Britain’s Cameron Norrie and Alessandro Gianessi will face Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien. Matteo Viola has been drawn against No.13 seed Soonwoo Kwon on Grandstand Arena while Roberto Marcora will meet Filip Horansky in the second match on Court Pietrangeli.
Wildcards have been awarded to Italy’s Francesco Forti, who will play Pedro Martinez, 18-year-old Luciano Darderi, who faces a tough opening round encounter against No.9 seed Joao Sousa, and teenager Lorenzo Musetti, who takes on Bernabe Zapata Miralles, the 23-year-old right-hander from Valencia, to take the total number of Italians in the men’s qualifying event to 13.
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