A wild card for Melbourne: Christmas in advance for Luca Van Assche and Diane Parry

Santa Claus came a little early for Luca van Assche and Diane Parry. They inherited the two invitations enjoyed by the French Tennis Federation under the reciprocal agreements between the FFT and the Australian Federation for the Australian Open and Roland-Garros. They are therefore guaranteed to enter directly into the main draw of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year 2023.

It’s quite a promotion for Van Assche, who, at 18, will be the youngest player to enter the 2023 table without going through qualifications. Winner of Roland-Garros juniors without having lost a single set in 2021, he has experienced spectacular progress this season via challenger tournaments. Ranked 503rd at the ATP last January, he gained more than 360 places to peak at the end of 2023 at 137th, his best ranking.

The protege of Yannick Quere chained the finals as challengers, until winning his first title in this category of tournaments at the end of November in Maia, Portugal. He also broke his first Top 100 this year and pulled himself out of qualifying for an ATP 250 for the first time.”Luca is having a very good end to the season and his progress over the year 2022 is impressive, he is now at the gates of the top 100. It is logical that he benefits from this invitation“, justified the National Technical Director, Nicolas Escudé.

For Diane Parry, the phenomenon is somewhat the opposite. The Niçoise climbed to 58th place in the WTA rankings in October before falling sharply in the last weeks of the year, to the point of breaking out of the Top 100. Currently 109th, she was just outside of the “cut” to enter the table in Melbourne. Among the girls, the wild card was undoubtedly played between Parry and Léolia Jeanjean (111th), revealed at the last Roland-Garros.

“Diane reached her best Grand Slam performances this year and won her first match in the Billie Jean King Cup with the French team“, recalls, however, Nicolas Escudé. At 19, Diane Parry had actually reached the third round at Roland-Garros then at Wimbledon, notably eliminating the defending champion in Paris, Barbora Krejcikova, on the Philippe-Chatrier court. She therefore presents certain guarantees on the main stages of the circuit.