US Open Wild Card Challenge Kicks Off This Week

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 8 for both men and women, with each side’s Challenge window lasting five weeks.

Both wild cards will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of ATP or WTA singles ranking points earned from their best three results during the five-week window. The men’s Challenge will include results from any professional hard-court event at the ATP Challenger level and above around the world, while the women’s Challenge includes results from WTA and USTA Pro Circuit / ITF World Tennis Tour events specified below. Both main draw and qualifying points earned count toward each player’s Challenge total.

Americans who otherwise earn direct entry into the US Open are not eligible, nor are players ranked in the ATP or WTA Top 50 on July 8. Should the player with the highest number of Challenge points earn direct entry into the US Open, the wild card will go to the next eligible American in the Challenge points standings. In the event of a tie, the player with the best ATP or best WTA singles ranking on August 12 will earn the wild card.

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

Men’s Events

• Week of July 8: ATP Challenger Tour 80s (Winnetka, Ill.; Winnipeg, Canada)
• Week of July 15: ATP Challenger Tour 110 (Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan) and 80 (Gatineau, Canada)
• Week of July 22: BB&T Atlanta Open ATP 250; ATP Challenger Tour 90 (Granby, Canada) and 80 (Binghamton, N.Y.)
• Week of July 29: Citi Open ATP 500 (Washington, D.C.); ATP Tour 250 (Los Cabos, Mexico); ATP Challenger Tour 110 (Chengdu, China), 90 (Segovia, Spain), and 80 (Lexington, Ky.)
• Week of August 5: Rogers Cup ATP Masters 1000 (Montreal); ATP Challenger Tour 90 (Aptos, Calif.) and 80 (Yokkaichi, Japan)

Women’s Events

• Week of July 8: ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Honolulu, Hawaii)
• Week of July 15: ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Berkeley, Calif.)
• Week of July 22: ITF World Tennis Tour W80 (Granby, Canada); ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Ashland, Ky.)
• Week of July 29: Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic WTA Premier (San Jose); Citi Open WTA International (Washington, D.C.); ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Lexington, Ky.)
• Week of August 5: Rogers Cup WTA Premier (Toronto); ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Landisville, Pa.)

All USTA Pro Circuit tournaments will be streamed live on www.procircuit.usta.com. This is the eighth consecutive year the USTA has used a wild card challenge format to award US Open wild cards for American players. Previous US Open Wild Card Challenge winners (and how they did at that year’s US Open) are below:

2018: Bradley Klahn (1R), Asia Muhammad (1R)

2017: Tommy Paul (1R),Sofia Kenin (3R)

2016: Ernesto Escobedo (2R),Sofia Kenin (1R)

2015: Bjorn Fratangelo (1R),Samantha Crawford (1R)

2014: Wayne Odesnik (1R),Nicole Gibbs (3R)

2013: Bradley Klahn (2R),Shelby Rogers (1R)

2012: Steve Johnson (3R),Mallory Burdette (3R)

The 2019 US Open main draw will be held August 26 to September 8.

The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level -- from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with more than 655,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking six summer WTA and ATP World Tour tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately 90 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network.For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.