Amanda Anisimova, photo: Ashley Marshall
Last year it helped launch the careers of Americans Amanda Anisimova and Tennys Sandgren.
In 2018, for the 7th year, the USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge will determine the recipient of an American men’s and women’s wild card into the main draw of the French Open.
Florida’s Anisimova won last year’s USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge at the tender age of 15, then later in the year won the US Open girls’ title. This year she reached the semifinals at the Indian Wells $125K event, then the following week at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells beat No. 23 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and No. 9 seed and former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova en route to the fourth round.
Sandgren broke out this year at the Australian Open, reaching the quarterfinals with wins over No. 5-ranked Dominic Thiem and No. 8 Stan Wawrinka.
The USTA and the French Tennis Federation have a reciprocal agreement in which wild cards into the French Open and US Open are exchanged.
The women’s wild card will be awarded to the top American WTA rankings point-earner for their two best results at four tournaments:
Week of April 9: $60K Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.
Week of April 16: $80K Dothan, Ala.
Week of April 23: $80K Charlottesville, Va.
Week of April 30: $80K Charleston, S.C.
The men’s wild card will be awarded to the top American ATP World tour rankings point-earner for their two best results at any pro- or Challenger-level clay event from tournaments beginning April 9 to tournaments beginning April 30.
Past men’s and women’s USTA Roland Garros
Wild Card Challenge winners:
2017 — Tennys Sandgren, Amanda Anisimova
2016 — Bjorn Fratengelo, Taylor Townsend
2015 — Frances Tiafoe, Louisa Chirico
2014 — Robby Ginepri, Taylor Townsend
2013 — Alex Kuznetsov, Shelby Rogers
2012 — Brian Baker, Melanie Oudin
For more info go to www.usta.com/news.
