Chilean Alejandro Tabilo and Katie Swan of Great Britain were among the 24 players earning spots in the BNP Paribas Open’s main draw with victories Tuesday on the final day of qualifying play.
Tabilo was a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 winner over Zachary Svajda, a two-time U.S. Tennis Association Boys’ 18 national champion who was seeking his sixth berth in an ATP Tour main draw.
Tabilo had 12 aces to seven for Svajda in the one hour, 58-minute match.
The 25-year-old Tabilo has dropped from a career-best 64th on the Association of Tennis Professional singles rankings on July 25, to 187th. He is 0-2 in ATP Tour singles main draw matches in 2023. Tabilo was born in Toronto and represented Canada throughout his junior career, peaking at 29th in the junior rankings in 2015.
Svajda, a 20-year-old from San Diego, was 227th in the rankings released Monday, one spot lower than his career best, achieved Feb. 27 after he reached the final of the Challenger Tour tournament in Rome, Georgia.
Svajda received a wild card into qualifying because he wasn’t ranked high enough, as did American Tennys Sandgren, who advanced when the top-seeded player in qualifying, Serbian Dusan Lajovic, retired when he was trailing 6-2, 4-1, in a night match Monday.
Sandgren lost to Australian Rinky Hijikata, 6-3, 6-3, Tuesday. Hijikata is seeded 16th in qualifying and ranked 130th, four spots lower than his career best, which came on Feb. 13.
The 31-year-old Sandgren — who grew up in Tennessee, where he still resides — has not played in the singles main draw of an ATP Tour event since February 2022 and is ranked 224th after reaching a career-high 41st in 2019. He is named after his great-grandfather and not the sport he plays.
The 22-year-old Hijikata teamed with fellow Australian Jason Kubler to win the Australian Open men’s doubles title, defeating Hugo Nys of Monaco and Jan Zielinski of Poland, 6-4, 7-6 (4), in the final.
Other men’s winners Tuesday included Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, who defeated Italian Matteo Arnaldi, 6-4, 6-4; Chilean Cristian Garin, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Austrian Filip Misolic; and German Jan-Lennard Struff, who defeated Radu Albot of Moldova, 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Swan defeated Hungarian Dalma Galfi, the top-seeded woman in qualifying, 6-4, 7-6 (6). The 23-year-old Swan is 156th on the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, the 24-year-old Galfi is 80th. She reached the third round of the U.S. Open and second round of Wimbledon last year.
Other women’s winners included 18-year-old American Ashlyn Krueger, who defeated Magdalena Frech of Poland, 6-2, 6-0; and German Laura Siegemund, a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 winner over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of the Slovak Republic.
Tuesday’s losers will receive $9,440 while the winners will earn at least $18,660.
Men’s and women’s main draw play is set to begin Wednesday.
The fourth edition of the Eisenhower Cup is set to begin at 7:15 p.m. with a mixed doubles format for the first time in the $200,000 winner-take-all event. Scheduled participants are:
— Iga Swiatek, who is first in the WTA singles rankings, and will team with her Polish countryman Hubert Hurkacz, 11th on the ATP singles rankings;
— Ons Jabeur, fourth on the WTA singles rankings, who will team with Casper Ruud, fourth on the ATP singles rankings;
— Taylor Fritz, fifth on the ATP singles rankings; who will team with 2023 Australian Open women’s singles champion Aryna Sabalenka;
— Emma Raducanu, the 2021 U.S. Open women’s singles champion, who will team with Cameron Norrie, the 2021 BNP Paribas Open men’s singles champion;
— Leylah Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open women’s singles runner-up, who will team with Felix Auger-Aliassime, 10th in the ATP singles rankings;
— Jessica Pegula, third on the WTA singles rankings, who will team with Tommy Paul, a 2023 Australian Open men’s singles semifinalist
— Stefanos Tsitsipas, third on the ATP singles rankings, who will team with Maria Sakkari, seventh on the WTA singles rankings; and
— Stan Wawrinka, a three-time singles Grand Slam champion, who will team with Belinda Bencic, ninth on the WTA singles rankings.
The Eisenhower Cup will be played under the Tie Break Tens format of first to ten-point tie break matches, with an eight-team single-elimination draw.
Tickets begin at $50. Parking is free. All proceeds go to local charities, including The Champions Volunteer Foundation.