Huge trouble in the run-up to the French Open 2024! On Tuesday, the organizers announced which players would receive a wild card for the main draw at the second Grand Slam tournament of the year. The selection left many fans shaking their heads.
“A disgrace”, “horrible and mean” and “simply crazy”: the fans’ reactions to the wild card award at this year’s French Open (May 20th to June 9th) were clear on Tuesday. The reason: The organizers left many well-known names off the list and instead gave preference to French players.
The missing names on the wild card list include Dominic Thiem, Caroline Wozniacki, Simona Halep and Emma Raducanu. Four big names who combine a total of four Grand Slam titles and, in the case of the Austrian Thiem, actually wanted to compete in Roland Garros one very last time. It is not clear whether the 30-year-old, who is ending his career after the season, will go through the tough qualifying process.
French Open gives out big home bonus
It is obvious which criteria the organizers used to award the wild cards for the main field for women and men: out of a total of 16 players on the list, a whopping 12 come from France. Of the 18 wild cards for qualification, all 18 go to French people. A scandal, according to quite a few fans who expressed their anger about the award in the comment columns.
Of the big names, Simona Halep will suffer the most from the wild card award. The Romanian, whose doping ban was lifted at the beginning of the year, is only ranked 1149th in the current world rankings. If she doesn’t make it into the top 1000 after the current preparatory tournament in Paris, the 32-year-old won’t even be allowed to start in the French Open qualification.
2024-05-15 07:47:00
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