USTA Press Release, August 1, 2017
The women’s US Open Wild Card Challenge enters its final week this week with young American Sofia Kenin remaining in the lead for the wild card.
Kenin, 18, holds 109 points after earning 80 points in the challenge by winning the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Stockton, Calif., two weeks ago—her first USTA Pro Circuit singles title of the year—and then reaching the semifinals at the $60,000 event in Sacramento, Calif., last week. Fellow young American Amanda Anisimova is in second place with 95 points after winning her first pro title in Sacramento this weekend and advancing to the quarterfinals in Stockton. Ashley Kratzer and Kristie Ahn are in third and fourth place, respectively.
The men’s wild card challenge continued into its third week with hard-court events at the US Open Series event in Atlanta, a $100,000 Challenger in Granby, Canada, and a $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Binghamton, N.Y. Tommy Paul, 20, holds first place for the second straight week, with 86 points, after qualifying for and reaching the quarterfinals in Atlanta—his first ATP quarterfinal—and advancing to the semifinals of the $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Winnetka, Ill., three weeks ago. Georgia Tech standout Christopher Eubanks is now in second place with 45 points after also reaching his first ATP quarterfinal in Atlanta. Alex Sarkissian, William Blumberg and Christian Harrison are all tied for third place with 29 points.
The women’s US Open Wild Card Challenge concludes this week with the WTA events in Stanford, Calif., and Washington D.C. (main draw and qualifying), as well as the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Lexington, Ky. The men’s challenge continues with the ATP World Tour event in Washington, D.C., and Los Cabos, as well a $125,000 Challenger in Chengdu, China, a €85,000+H Challenger in Segovia, Spain, and a $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Lexington, Ky.
The men’s and women’s standings and schedule, as of July 31, can be found here (men’s standings; women’s standings).
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 men’s challenge began the week of July 10 and concludes the week of Aug. 7, while the women’s challenge began the week of July 17 and concludes the week of July 31 (this week). The men’s challenge will now 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.
