USTA Press Release, July 18, 2017
The US Open Wild Card Challenge kicked off last week with the men’s challenge, and young American Tommy Paul has the early lead.
Paul, 20, advanced to the semifinals of the $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Winnetka, Ill., this past weekend to earn 29 ranking points. Martin Redlicki and Dennis Nevolo are tied for second place with 18 points after earning three points by qualifying for the main draw and then reaching the quarterfinals in Winnetka. The women’s challenge kicks off this week at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Stockton, Calif.
USTA Player Development will award a US Open main-draw wild card to the one American man and one American woman who earn the most ATP World Tour and WTA ranking points in a series of hard-court events this summer. The challenge concludes the week of Aug. 7. The men’s challenge will now be held over five weeks, rather than three weeks, and include the best three results during the five-week time period. The women’s challenge will still consist of the best two results over a three-week period.
New this year for the men’s wild card challenge, USTA Player Development will consider all American players’ results worldwide for the wild cards. That means both USTA Pro Circuit tournaments and U.S. and international ATP World Tour events on any professional outdoor hard-court surface at the ATP Challenger-level and above will be included. New for the women’s wild card challenge, USTA Player Development will now consider American players’ results in both select $60,000 outdoor USTA Pro Circuit hard-court events (main draw only) as well as qualifying and main draw results from the WTA tournaments in Washington D.C., and Stanford, Calif
Only Americans who did not otherwise earn direct entry into the US Open are eligible. In the event of a tie, the player with the best ATP (on Aug. 14) or best WTA (on Aug. 7) singles ranking will be awarded the wild card.
The men’s standings and schedule, as of July 17, can be found here (men’s standings).
