Remember Frank Dancevic from this summer? How about from beating Andy Roddick on his way to the Indianapolis final? Or becoming the first home-grown boy to land himself in the quarters of the Rogers Cup in 18 years? The rising Canadian star had a stellar summer, going 8-3 in three events and seeing his ranking jump from No.113 to 67th in the world.

When the US Open draw deadline came up a few weeks ago, however, Dancevic didn't have a high enough ranking to slip into the main draw, meaning he would have to take the hard road and qualify for the year's last Grand Slam. After beating Andy Roddick and Fernando Verdasco, not to mention making the quarters of a Masters Series and taking Rafael Nadal to a dramatic three sets, Dancevic became a hot name on the tour, but his ranking still bestowed one thing on him that the Nadals and Roddicks of the tour didn't have to go through – US Open qualifying.

So over the past week, the 22-year-old Dancevic has played as the No.1 seed in a tournament for the first time this year, though it was a tournament with 16 winners instead of one, all earning the right to a place in the US Open main draw.

'Dancevic became a hot name on the tour, but his ranking still bestowed one thing on him that the Nadals and Roddicks didn't have to go through – US Open qualifying'

Joining Dancevic will be a cast of hard-road takers, men who are just coming up in their careers like American teenager Scoville Jenkins (who was not granted a wild card) and Amersfoort champion Steve Darcis, along with journeymen like Andrei Pavel (once ranked No.13), Rainer Schuettler (2003 Australian Open finalist) and Alexander Waske (playing in his third Open at age 32). They all advanced through the gruelling three rounds of the qualifiers, just for the chance to get a crack at the main draw.

Dancevic gets Marat Safin in the opening round; Jenkins, not as lucky, meets Roger Federer. But for these guys the journey is already well under way. And while Safin and Federer might be working out the kinks in their superior games on Monday and Tuesday at Flushing Meadows, the qualifiers will have three matches under their belt and the chance to play just one more, because that's all you can hope for on the hard road.