The USTA announced 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 Challengewill 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
The 2018 US Open main draw will be held Monday, Aug. 27, through Sunday, Sept. 9.
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 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 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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