PARIS (AP) — Five Americans made it through qualifying rounds for the French Open tennis tournament, the most since 2004.
Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento, California; Bjorn Fratangelo of Pittsburgh; and Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont, California, give the U.S. three men who qualified for the Grand Slam event played on red clay for just the third time since 1982.
The two American women joining them are Hailey Baptiste of Washington and Varvara Lepchenko of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Brooksby, 20, saved three match points in the second set and came back to beat Evan Furness of France 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 6-4 in a contest that lasted nearly 3 1/2 hours Friday.
It’s the second time Brooksby has qualified at a Grand Slam tournament: At the 2019 U.S. Open, he wound up beating 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych in the first round of the main draw.
Fratangelo, 27, defeated Alexsandar Vukic of Australia 6-2, 7-6 (3) on Thursday to get into the French Open field, while McDonald, 26, advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Marco Trungelliti on Friday.
Baptiste, 19, beat Julia Grabher of Austria 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, and Lepchenko, 35, defeated Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 6-1, 6-3.
The French Open starts Sunday.
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