Main draw wild cards will be up for grabs when the 2019 Australian Open Wild Card Challenge kicks off on Oct. 22, 2018 for the women, and Oct. 29 for the men.
The 2019 Australian Open Wild Card Challenge utilizes indoor and outdoor hard court pro tournaments to award an American man and woman a main draw wild card into the Australian Open. The USTA and Tennis Australia have a reciprocal agreement in which main draw wild cards for the 2019 Australian Open and US Open are exchanged.
In last year’s Australian Open Wild Card Challenge Tim Smyczek won the men’s wild card, while former world No. 1 junior Taylor Townsend claimed the women’s.
The men’s wild card will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of ATP singles ranking points earned from their best two results during the three-week men’s 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 three results during those four weeks, at three $80,000 USTA Pro Circuit women’s events (main draw points only) and one WTA $125,000 event (main draw and qualifying points).
Past Australian Open Wild Card Challenge Winners:
2017 — Tim Smyczek, Taylor Townsend
2016 — Michael Mmoh, Kayla Day
2015 — Noah Rubin, Samantha Crawford
2014 — Denis Kudla, Irina Falconi
Only Americans who do not earn direct entry into the Australian Open are eligible. In the event of a tie, the player with the best ATP or best WTA singles ranking on Nov. 19 will be awarded the wild card. All USTA Pro Circuit tournaments will be streamed live on www.procircuit.usta.com. The challenge will consist of the following events:
Men’s Events:
Week of Oct. 29 — ATP Masters 1000 (Paris); USTA Pro Circuit $75,000 Challenger (Charlottesville, Va.); ATP $75,000 Challengers (Canberra, Australia; Shenzhen, China);
Week of Nov. 5 — ATP 106,000 Challenger (Bratislava, Slovakia); ATP 85,000 Challenger (Mouilleron-le-Captif, France); USTA Pro Circuit $75,000 Challenger (Knoxville, Tenn.);
Week of Nov. 12 — ATP $150,000 Challengers (Houston; Bangalore, India); USTA Pro Circuit $75,000 Challenger (Champaign, Ill.); ATP $50,000 Challenger (Kobe, Japan).
Women’s Events:
Week of Oct. 22 — USTA Pro Circuit $80,000 Event (Macon, Ga.);
Week of Oct. 29 — USTA Pro Circuit $80,000 Event (Tyler, Texas);
Week of Nov. 5 — USTA Pro Circuit $80,000 Event (Las Vegas);
Week of Nov. 12 — WTA $125,000 Series Event (Houston, Texas).
For more info go to www.usta.com/news.
