— Parineeti ChopraSeptember 2, 2017//platform. I love this tournament and I love to be here in New York. However, with only the top two teams able to qualify for Russia directly, third-placed Australia will hope the Samurai Blue can emerge with a win or hold the Saudis to a draw. All credit to Samit and Brendan, they took the game away from us. I love the US Open and I love to be here in New York, says 2009 champion Juan Martin Del Potro. Australia can still qualify from third place but would need to negotiate home and away playoffs agai. The Asian Cup champions will be favoured to beat lowly Thailand in Melbourne in their last qualifier. Appeal to all sports federations, let’s keep sportsmen as most important people, everything else will fall into place later. Thus far, they have managed to defeat only West Indies and Zimbabwe in their 17-year-old history as a Test playing nation. The skipper has been joined on the absentee list by Borussia Dortmund midfielder Shinji Kagawa, who was an unused substitute in Thursday’s match at Saitama Stadium.