USTA Press Release, June 21, 2018

The USTA announced on Monday that the US Open Wild Card Challenge, which utilizes hard-court pro tournaments to award an American man and woman a main draw wild card into the US Open, will kick off the week of July 9 and conclude the week of Aug. 6.

The men’s wild card will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of ATP singles ranking points earned from their best three results during that five-week window, including results from any professional hard-court event at the ATP Challenger level and above around the world.

The women’s wild card will be awarded to the American with the highest cumulative total of WTA singles ranking points earned from their best two results during those five weeks, at select $60,000 outdoor USTA Pro Circuit hard-court events (main draw only) – including four new $60,000 tournaments, in Honolulu, Berkeley, Calif., Ashland, Ky., and Landisville, Pa. – as well as qualifying and main draw results from the WTA tournaments in San Jose, Calif., and Washington, D.C.

Only Americans who do not earn direct entry into the US Open are eligible. In the event of a tie, the player with the best ATP or best WTA singles ranking on Aug. 13 will be awarded the wild card.

All USTA Pro Circuit tournaments will be streamed live on www.procircuit.usta.com. This is the seventh consecutive year the USTA has used a wild card challenge format to award US Open wild cards for American players.

The US Open Wild Card Challenge will consist of the following events:

Men’s Events

• Week of July 9: Winnetka, Ill. $75,000; Winnipeg, Canada $75,000
• Week of July 16: Astana, Kazakhstan $125,000; Gatineau, Canada $75,000
• Week of July 23: Atlanta ATP 250; Granby, Canada $100,000; Binghamton, N.Y. $75,000
• Week of July 30: Washington D.C. ATP 500; Los Cabos ATP 250; Chengdu, China $125,000; Segovia, Spain €85,000+H; Lexington, Ky. $75,000
• Week of August 6: Toronto ATP Masters 1000; Jinan, China $150,000; Aptos, Calif. $100,000; Portoroz, Slovenia €64,000+H

Women’s Events

• Week of July 9: Honolulu $60,000
• Week of July 16: Berkeley, Calif. $60,000
• Week of July 23: Ashland, Ky. $60,000
• Week of July 30: San Jose WTA Premier; Washington, D.C. WTA International; Lexington, Ky. $60,000
• Week of August 6: Landisville, Pa. $60,000

The USTA first used this US Open wild card format for its 2012 wild cards. The USTA also utilizes this wild card challenge format for the French Open and Australian Open.

Previous US Open wild card winners include:

• 2012 – Steve Johnson and Mallory Burdette, both of whom reached the third round
• 2013 – Bradley Klahn and Shelby Rogers, with Klahn winning his first-round match
• 2014 – Wayne Odesnik and Nicole Gibbs, with Gibbs reaching the third round
• 2015 – Bjorn Fratangelo and Samantha Crawford
• 2016 – Ernesto Escobedo and Sofia Kenin, with Escobedo picking up his first Grand Slam win
• 2017 – Tommy Paul and Sofia Kenin, with Kenin reaching the third round, before falling to Maria Sharapova in Arthur Ashe Stadium