As for the serious business of fighting through three rounds of qualifying, 16 players are celebrating on Thursday night after making it mission accomplished.
Austria’s second seed Sinja Kraus was the first player through, and she was followed by the likes of former finalist Sloane Stephens and Egypt’s Mayar Sherif later in the day.
Dan Imhoff sat down with 30-year-old Sherif to hear about how she’s starting to rediscover her best tennis after a difficult few months.
At 29 years of age, Andrea Pellegrino delivered one of the greatest feel good stories of the day when he beat fellow Italian Marco Cecchinato in straight sets to reach a Grand Slam main draw for the first time.
“It’s a dream come true,” the world No.126 – who also reached the last 16 in Rome recently – told RG’s Alex Sharp.
Twenty-year-old Frenchman Thomas Faurel, Italy’s Federico Cina, American graduate Michael Zheng and Jaime Faria from Portugal – the man who beat Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round – all booked main draw spots.