USTA Press Release, April 18, 2017

The Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge kicked off this week with Tennys Sandgren, Noah Rubin, and teenager Amanda Anisimova taking the early leads.

Anisimova, 15, reached her first USTA Pro Circuit singles final this weekend at the $80,000 event in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., to earn 70 ranking points. Sandgren and Rubin both qualified for the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston to earn 12 points.

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 Tour ranking points in a series of clay-court events this spring. The challenge began the week of April 10 and concludes the week of May 1.

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 will still consist 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 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 April 17, can be found here (MEN’S STANDINGS; WOMEN’S STANDINGS). All players in red are currently ranked in the Top 100 and likely to receive direct entry into the 2017 French Open. Men’s events include points in the main draw and qualifying, while women’s events include points in the main draw only.