Free Spot in the Draw

Wimbledon recently announced the wildcards for the 2007 Championships. As usual, the majority of these precious spots in the main draw, qualifying and doubles were awarded to British players. However, this year Wimbledon also awarded main draw singles wildcards to players from The Netherlands, Croatia, France, Ukraine, Russia and Denmark. In contrast, The 2007 French Open awarded all its main draw singles wildcards to French
players except for one to an Australian man and one to an Australian woman. At the 2007 Australian Open, there were three wildcards awarded to non-Australians in the main draws, i.e. an American man and woman, a French man and woman, as well as a player from Japan and another from Uzbekistan. In the end, although a wildcard is a spot in the draw, losing in the first round doesn’t provide any real ranking points. Nonetheless, it’s a rare break that most pro tennis players would die for… In fact, a couple players have received wildcards in more than one Grand Slam in 2007 – is that fair?







