The USTA has announced the return of the US Open Wild Card Challenge, which utilizes hard-court pro tournaments to award wild cards into the US Open for American players. The men’s challengekicked off this week and concludes the week of Aug. 7, while the women’s challenge will begin the week of July 17 and conclude the week of July 31.
New this year for the men’s wild card challenge, USTA Player Development will now consider all American players’ results worldwide for the wild cards. Now, 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.
The men’s challenge will now be held over five weeks, rather than three weeks, and 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.
The American man and American woman who earn the most ATP World Tour and WTA ranking points from their best results will earn main-draw wild cards into the US Open. 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.
All USTA Pro Circuit tournaments will be streamed live on www.procircuit.usta.com. This is the sixth 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 10: Winnetka, Ill. $75,000, Winnipeg, Canada $75,000
Week of July 17: Astana, Kazakhstan $125,000, Gatineau, Canada $75,000
Week of July 24: Atlanta ATP 250, Granby, Canada $100,000, Binghamton, N.Y. $75,000
Week of July 31: 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 7: Montreal ATP 1000, Jinan, China $150,000, Aptos, Calif. $100,000, Portoroz, Slovenia €43,000+H
Women’s Events
Week of July 17: Stockton, Calif. $60,000
Week of July 24: Sacramento, Calif. $60,000
Week of July 31: Washington D.C. WTA, Stanford WTA, Lexington, Ky. $60,000
The USTA first used this US Open wild card format for its 2012 wild cards, won by Steve Johnson and Mallory Burdette, both of whom reached the third round of the US Open. In 2013, Bradley Klahn and Shelby Rogers earned the wild cards, with Klahn winning his first-round match. And in 2014, Nicole Gibbs reached the third round of the US Open (her career-best Grand Slam result), while Wayne Odesnik earned the men’s wild card. In 2015, Bjorn Fratangelo made his Grand Slam main draw debut by earning the men’s wild card, while Samantha Crawford competed in the US Open as the women’s wild card. And last year, Ernesto Escobedo and junior player Sofia Kenin both made their Grand Slam debuts at the US Open by earning the wild cards, with Escobedo picking up his first Grand Slam win. The USTA also utilizes this wild card challenge format for the French Open and Australian Open.
The 2017 US Open main draw will be held Monday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 10.
Information on the US Open Wild Card Challenge will be available at www.procircuit.usta.com. Follow the USTA Pro Circuit #USTAProCircuit.
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 715,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, the highest-attended annual sporting event in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking seven 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
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