Kazakh tennis player Alexander Shevchenko, ranked 111th in the world and the country's No. 2, failed to come through qualifying for the ATP 250 hard-court tournament in Almaty, infohub.kz reports.
Shevchenko was seeded third in the qualifying draw. In the first round he beat Estonia's Daniil Glinka 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 7-5.
On Sunday the Kazakh faced Greece's Stefanos Sakellaridis, the world No. 135, for a place in the main draw, and lost 6-7 (4-7), 4-6.
Shevchenko therefore misses out on the Almaty Open main draw. Four Kazakh players will compete in the singles. Alexander Bublik, seeded third, will begin his campaign in the second round. The other three Kazakhs received wild cards and will play the following first-round matches: Mikhail Kukushkin against Stefanos Sakellaridis (Greece), Zangar Nurlanuly against Tomas Machac (Czech Republic), and Timofey Skatov against Fabian Marozsan (Hungary).
In doubles, Bublik will team up with Nurlanuly, while Beibit Zhukayev will play alongside Amir Omarkhanov. Both Kazakh pairs received wild cards.