Weintraub, Sela look to crack French Open

Shahar Pe’er faces dismal prospects in Paris despite automatically qualifying for Grand Slam.

By ALLON SINAI
SHAHAR PE’ER (photo credit: Reuters)
SHAHAR PE’ER
(photo credit: Reuters)
Amir Weintraub advanced to the second round of the Roland Garros qualifying tournament in Paris on Tuesday, beating Ti Chen of Taiwan 6-1, 6-3.
Weintraub, who plummeted 30 places to No. 224 in the world earlier this week, has struggled for form since coming through the Australian Open qualifiers to reach the main draw of a Grand Slam event for the first time in his career in January.
Weintraub was eventually knocked out in the second round of the main draw in Melbourne by No. 17 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, but has since only once progressed past the second round in seven tournaments on the Challenger circuit.
The 26-year-old Israeli faces Romanian Adrian Ungur (107) in the second round of the qualifiers in Paris.
Meanwhile, Dudi Sela returned to the world’s top-100 for the first time since last November and reached his highest ranking in a year on Monday when he jumped 22 places to No. 88 in the world after winning the Challenger tournament in Busan, South Korea.
However, Sela did not receive direct entry to the main draw in Paris as he wasn’t ranked high enough on the April 15 cut-off.
Sela elected to forgo the qualifiers at Roland Garros, but several retirements should see him sneak into the main draw.
For the women, Shahar Pe’er dropped 13 places to No. 136 in the world on Monday, but was still ranked high enough at the cut-off date last month to automatically qualify for the main draw of the year’s second Grand Slam event.
However, it is hard to be optimistic regarding Pe’er’s prospects in Paris as there seems to be no end in sight to her dismal form.
The Israeli has lost in the first round in her past two tournaments on the second-tier ITF circuit before falling in the second round of the qualifiers of the WTA event in Brussels on Monday.
A defeat for Pe’er in the first round at Roland Garros will see her parachute around another 40 places in the world rankings.