USTA Press Release, April 25, 2017
The Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge continued into its second week with teenager Amanda Anisimova and Tennys Sandgren staying at the top of the leaderboard.
Anisimova, 15, reached her second consecutive USTA Pro Circuit singles final this past weekend at the $60,000 event in Dothan, Ala., earning 48 points. The week prior, she also advanced to the final of the $80,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., to earn 70 ranking points.
Sandgren reached the final of the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Sarasota, Fla., yesterday to claim 55 points, falling to fellow American Frances Tiafoe in the final (Tiafoe already received direct entry into the French Open). The week prior, Sandgren also 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 American man and one 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 24, 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. The entry lists for the French Open were released last week.
