Silly question, but I didn’t know you could play a tournament before the tournament.
Kimmer Coppejans, 32, ranked 232nd, has qualified for the main draw of the Shanghai Masters 1000. To get there, he first beat American Nishesh Basavareddy, 139th, on Monday, then on Tuesday Australian Dane Sweeny, 112th and 12th seed in qualifying, 6-3, 6-2 in 1h26. Two matches won. And the tournament hasn’t started for him yet. It starts now.
I read that on the 7.32 train and had to read it again. So there are seeds in qualifying. A seed for the right to try to earn the right. I asked three people in the newsroom whether qualifiers also have qualifying for the qualifying. Two said no, one said “it depends”. I checked, and actually nobody knows.
What struck me most: on Monday, his win over Basavareddy was his first career victory at a Masters 1000. But it wasn’t the Masters 1000 yet, if I understood. Well, yes it was. Well, it was the Masters 1000, but not the draw. I note in my notebook: a tournament has a draw, and around the draw, there is still more tournament.
Now he joins two other Belgians, Alexander Blockx, ranked 28th and 27th seed, and Zizou Bergs, 39th, who plays Czech Vit Kopriva. Blockx, for his part, is exempt from the first round. Exempt. One player fought for two days to get in, another is allowed to skip the first match. I’m told it’s tradition, fine, but what does that mean?
A first main draw at 32 is very good. Me, my season really starts in May.
Blockx faces Frenchman Quentin Halys or a qualifier in the second round. Maybe one who has played two more matches than he has. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: 7sur7.
