Veronika Erjavec will meet Jasmine Paolini in the first round of the US Open in New York, a debut main-draw appearance at a Grand Slam there for the Slovenian. Erjavec is the only Slovenian directly in the main draw this year, and the match will open her campaign when the tournament begins on Sunday.
The pairing gives Erjavec a quick introduction to the scale of the New York Grand Slam. Under the entry rules, a player who is directly accepted into the main draw gets in by ranking rather than by qualifying, and Erjavec has done that at all four Grand Slams this season. That makes this week her first direct New York main-draw appearance, and she will also collect at least the record first-round prize money even if she loses early.
Erjavec said Paolini has put together several excellent seasons and has produced enviable results, but she also pointed to a chance to unsettle a player coming into her first tournament after Wimbledon. First rounds are always nervous, she said, and she hopes to turn that into an edge by bringing what she shows in training into the match. Paolini, the 19th seed, arrives with the sort of recent form that makes that a difficult ask.
The match also adds a small layer of familiarity to an otherwise new setting. Erjavec has never faced Paolini before, and she is being accompanied on the American tour by Sašo Pistotnik as she tries to make the leap from training court to the biggest stage. The New York tournament has been turned by the US Tennis Association into a three-week event, and it opens this season as the final Grand Slam on the calendar.
For Erjavec, the next step is immediate. She does not need a long route through the draw to make her name at Flushing Meadows; she just needs one clean performance against a seeded opponent who has spent the past few seasons building a stronger resume than hers. That is what will decide whether this first New York main-draw match is a brief entry or the start of something larger.
