USTA Press Release, May 2, 2017
The Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge continued into its third week with teenager Amanda Anisimova and the resurgent Tennys Sandgren remaining at the top of the leaderboard. The men’s and women’s challenges conclude this week.
Anisimova, 15, still holds 118 points in the challenge after reaching back-to-back singles finals at the $80,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, and the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Dothan, Ala. Victoria Duval and Caroline Dolehide—the only players who can surpass Anisimova in the standings—need to win the $60,000 event in Charleston, S.C., this week to earn the French Open wild card. Otherwise, Anisimova earns the wild card. Kristie Ahn, who is in second place in the standings, is not competing in Charleston.
Sandgren, continuing a successful comeback from hip surgery, reached the final of the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Sarasota, Florida, two weeks ago and also qualified for the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston the week prior. Bjorn Fratangelo, who earned 32 points by qualifying and reaching the second round at the ATP event in Budapest, is now in second place, while Mitchell Krueger is in third place.
USTA Player Development will award a French Open main-draw wild card to one US-American man and one US-American woman who earn the most ATP World Tour and WTA ranking points in a series of clay-court events this spring.
New this year for the men’s wild card challenge, USTA Player Development will now consider all American results worldwide for the wild card. Therefore, both USTA Pro Circuit tournaments and international ATP Tour and Challenger tournaments on any professional outdoor clay surface (Har-Tru or red) at prize money of $50,000 and above will be included. The women’s wild card challenge still consists of results earned at USTA Pro Circuit clay-court events over four weeks.
The USTA and the French Tennis Federation have a reciprocal agreement in which wild cards into the 2017 French Open and US Open are exchanged. Only US-Americans who did not otherwise earn direct entry into the French Open are eligible. In the event of a tie, the player with the best ATP or best WTA singles ranking on Monday, May 8, will be awarded the wild card.
The standings, as of May 1, and future tournaments can be found here (MEN’S STANDINGS; WOMEN’S STANDINGS). Men’s events include points in the main draw and qualifying, while women’s events include points in the main draw only. All players who have received direct entry into the 2017 French Open are not included in the standings.
