By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
It pays to sign in as an on-site alternate at the Delray Beach Open.
One year after part-time competitive player and full-time real estate professional Matija Pecotic became one of the best stories in the tennis year by actually getting to the second round of the main draw as a last minute on-site alternate entry into the event’s qualifying tournament, there were an incredible six on-site alternates who made the 16-player, two-round qualifying field at the 2024 event….at least at the start of the qualifying competition. Players who did not qualify for the event, but got in by signing in as alternates were
Sho Shimabukuro of Japan (ranked No. 165)
Valentin Vacherot of Monaco (ranked No. 173)
Denis Yevseyev of Kazakhstan (ranked No. 177)
Illya Marchenko of Ukraine (ranked No. 234)
Guido Andreozzi of Argentina (ranked No. 254)
Brandon Holt of the United States (ranked No. 278)
An on-site alternate into a tour-level qualifying event is a player who has an ATP ranking who randomly signs-in for an ATP tournament despite their ranking not being high-enough to originally be accepted into the qualifying rounds of the tournament. They are basically taking a chance that someone will pull out at the last minute. It’s kind of like walking up to the most difficult restaurant you can think of at prime time on a Saturday night and waiting outside to see if someone doesn’t show up for their reservation.
So the aforementioned six players took a chance and “signed in” to be an on-site alternate -with no guarantees that they would get into the tournament – and all were rewarded. However, for a reason not discovered, two of the six Yevseyev and Andreozzi, then withdrew from the qualifying tournament, and were then replaced by the No. 7 and No. 8 players on the on-site alternate list, which were
August Holmgren of Denmark (ranked No. 296)
Preston Brown of the United States (ranked No. 996)
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely there will be another Cinderella run like that of Pecotic, who while ranked No. 784 beat former top 10 star Jack Sock in the first round of the main draw of the event. The five alternates that played on the first day of qualifying all lost, leaving only Brandon Holt, who will play his first round qualifying match on Sunday.
