USTA Announces US Open Wild Cards; Increases in USO Prize Money Include $25,000 for Competing in Qualifying; USO Compensation Issue for Collegians Still Unresolved

The US Open wild cards, both main draw and qualifying, for men and women, were announced this afternoon by the USTA.

The men's release:

FLUSHING, N.Y., August 14, 2024 – The USTA today announced that three-time Grand Slam singles champion Stan Wawrinka, 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem and Americans Chris Eubanks, Zachary Svajda, Learner Tien and Matthew Forbes will receive singles main draw wild cards into the 2024 US Open, as well as France’s Alexandre Muller and Australian Tristan Schoolkate, as part of reciprocal agreements.

 

The 2024 US Open will be played August 26-September 8 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

 

Wawrinka, 39, is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion including the 2016 US Open. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 and is currently ranked No. 141. He’ll be making his 72nd Grand Slam main draw appearance, which is fifth all-time.

 

Thiem, 30, won the 2020 US Open. Earlier this year he announced that he will retire following the 2024 season after struggling with a persistent wrist injury for the better part of the last three years. He has been ranked as high as No. 3 and is currently ranked No. 211.

 

Eubanks, 28, is currently ranked No. 123. Last summer he reached a career-high ranking of world No. 29 after advancing to the Wimbledon quarterfinals and winning his first ATP Tour title in Mallorca. He reached the semifinals at the ATP 250 event in Newport earlier this summer and recently represented the United States at the Paris Olympics.

 

Svajda, 21, is currently ranked No. 110, which is one spot off his career-best ranking of No. 109 achieved in July. In 2023 he qualified for the US Open main draw after receiving wild cards in 2020 and 2021 as the USTA Boys’ 18s national champion. He earned his best US Open result in 2021, reaching the second round where he lost to Jannik Sinner in five sets.

 

Tien, 18, is currently ranked a career-best No. 232 and earned his wild card by winning the US Open Wild Card Challenge. This summer Tien won 28 consecutive matches, winning five consecutive tournaments including his first ATP Challenger Tour title at the USTA Pro Circuit event in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. This will be Tien’s third consecutive US Open main draw appearance after receiving a wild card each of the past two years as the USTA Boys’ 18s national champion.

 

Forbes, 18, will make his Grand Slam debut after winning the singles title at the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships. The Raleigh, N.C., native will play college tennis at Michigan State in the fall. He won the boys’ 18s doubles title at the 2023 Orange Bowl.

 

Muller, 27, is currently ranked No. 77 and reached a career high ranking of No. 71 in January. He earned his wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and FFT where wild cards between the US Open and Roland Garros are exchanged.

 

Schoolkate, 23, is currently ranked No. 160 and won his first ATP Challenger Tour title earlier this year. He earned his wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia where wild cards between the US Open and Australian Open are exchanged.

 

The USTA also announced the American men receiving wild cards into the US Open Qualifying tournament, held August 19-22 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center:

 

Brandon Holt, 26, who has reached three singles finals this year, winning one title; Ethan Quinn, 20, the 2023 NCAA singles champion who reached his first ATP Challenger Tour final in Cleveland in January; Nishesh Basavareddy, 19, the Stanford All-American who reached the final at the ATP Challenger in Bloomfield Hills in July; Kaylan Bigun, 18, the 2024 French Open boys’ singles champion who was ranked as the No. 1 junior in the world as recently as June; Eliot Spizzirri, 22, the two-time ITA National Player of the Year at the University of Texas; Aidan Mayo, 21, who reached the singles final at the ATP Challenger in Charlottesville in October; Bruno Kuzuhara, 20, the former world No. 1 junior; Michael Zheng, 20, the Columbia University junior who was the 2024 NCAA men’s singles runner-up; and Jack Kennedy, 16, the USTA Boys’ 18s national singles runner-up.

The women's release:

FLUSHING, N.Y., August 14, 2024 – The USTA today announced that four-time Grand Slam singles champion Naomi Osaka, 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and Americans McCartney Kessler, Amanda Anisimova, Alexa Noel and Iva Jovic will receive singles main draw wild cards into the 2024 US Open, as well as France’s Chloe Paquet and Australian Taylah Preston, as part of reciprocal agreements.

 

The 2024 US Open will be played August 26-September 8 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

 

Osaka, 26, is a four-time Grand Slam champion, including the 2018 and 2020 US Opens. The former world No. 1 returned to the court in January following the birth of her daughter. She has advanced to the third round or better at four WTA 1000 events so far this season and recently broke into the WTA Top 100 for the first time since her return.

 

Andreescu, 24, is the 2019 US Open champion and is currently ranked No. 166. She returned to the court earlier this year after missing nine months due to a back injury. She reached the third round at Roland Garros in her first event back and reached her first WTA final in nearly two years in June.

 

Kessler, 25, is currently ranked a career-best No. 100. The former All-American at the University of Florida made her Grand Slam main draw debut at the 2024 Australian Open after winning the USTA’s Wild Card Challenge, where she reached the second round. She also qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon and won the singles title at the USTA Pro Circuit W75 event in Rome, Ga., less than an hour from her hometown of Calhoun, Ga.

 

Anisimova, 22, earned her wild card by winning the US Open Wild Card Challenge, buoyed by a run to the final at the WTA 1000 in Toronto. The former world No. 21 returned to the court in January after taking an eight-month break from the tour in 2023 for mental health reasons. She reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in only her second tournament back and after her performance in Toronto, finds herself back inside the WTA Top 50.

 

Noel, 21, earned the wild card customarily awarded to an American NCAA singles champion by winning the title as a redshirt junior at the University of Miami in May. She’ll be making her return to the US Open for the first time since 2019 when she competed in the doubles main draw as the USTA Girls’ 18s national doubles champion.

 

Jovic, 16, won the singles title at the USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships. She is currently ranked No. 5 in the ITF world junior rankings and has won the girls’ doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year. She has helped lead the U.S. to back-to-back Junior Billie Jean King Cup titles.

 

Paquet, 30, is currently ranked No. 97, one spot off her career-best ranking of No. 96. She earned her wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and FFT where wild cards between the US Open and Roland Garros are exchanged.

 

Preston, 18, is currently ranked No. 146 and made her Grand Slam debut at the 2024 Australian Open. She earned her wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia where wild cards between the US Open and Australian Open are exchanged.

 

The USTA also announced the American women receiving wild cards into the US Open Qualifying tournament, held August 19-22 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center:

 

Clervie Ngounoue, 18, the former world No. 1 junior who won her first two professional singles titles this year; Liv Hovde, 18, the 2022 Wimbledon girls’ singles champion; Tyra Grant, 16, who has won three Grand Slam girls’ doubles titles; Akasha Urhobo, 17, who has reached three ITF singles finals this year, winning one title; Sophie Chang, 27, who won her fourth professional singles title at the W75 event in Evansville in July; Mary Stoiana, 22, the 2024 ITA National Player of the Year at Texas A&M; Kristina Penickova, 14, who reached the girls’ singles semifinals at the French Open; Julieta Pareja, 15, who won her first professional singles title at the W15 in Rancho Santa Fe in July; and Valerie Glozman, 17, the USTA Girls’ 18s national singles runner-up.

There is always disagreement about these selections, but I'm delighted to see McCartney Kessler, the former Florida All-American receive a main draw wild card card after winning the W100 last week in Pennsylvania and reaching 100 in the WTA rankings. Kessler was not a player with many USTA connections as a junior and while in college, but her impressive rise over the past year has now been appropriately recognized and rewarded.

The women's qualifying wild cards are an extremely youthful group, with 27-year-old Sophie Chang and 21-year-old Texas A&M senior Mary Stoiana(the release has her age incorrectly at 22) the two oldest.  As John Parsons of No-Ad No-Problem pointed out, six of the nine qualifying wild cards competed in the USTA 18s Nationals in San Diego last week, and that doesn't include champion Iva Jovic, who is, of course, a main draw wild card recipient. Liv Hovde was eligible to play San Diego, but she hasn't played that event since 2021, when she was 15.  

The men's qualifying wild cards are a young cohort as well, although only two of them--18-year-old Kaylan Bigun and 16-year-old Jack Kennedy--played Kalamazoo this year. Learner Tien was of course eligible to compete in Kalamazoo, but won his main draw wild card through the USTA's Wild Card Challenge competition. Brandon Holt(USC) and Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) are the oldest at 26 and 22 respectively. 

Holt, Spizzirri and Aidan Mayo received qualifying wild cards last year, and although they are all more than 150 spots above Colton Smith in the ATP rankings, I would have liked to see the Arizona senior given a chance at the qualifying level after improving his ATP ranking from 1603 in June to 573 now.

Wild cards for the US Open Junior Championships are not generally announced for at least another week.

The USTA held a virtual press conference this morning which I attended, and there were a few notable announcements. There will be more video review this year, on eight courts; fans will be allowed to move in and out after each game, rather than only at changeovers. A night match will be moved if it is not started by 11:15 p.m.; coaching will again be allowed in all competitions, including juniors; in extreme heat, the roofs on Ashe and Armstrong will be partially closed to provide more shade.

The USTA announced its record prize money last week, with a participant in the first round receiving $100,000.  Reaching the final round of qualifying nets a player $52,000, with $25,000 going to anyone competing in the qualifying tournament.

Lisa Stone of Parenting Aces asked about what happens to that prize money when it can't be accepted by the Kalamazoo and San Diego champions, and Stacey Allaster, US Open tournament director, said this:

STACEY ALLASTER: Right now the money just goes

back into the big expense budget of the US Open. Dr.

Hainline can speak to NCAA rules. We have been

speaking to the NCAA, if that money could be set aside

against some of their expenses. I don't have resolution on

that today, but we have been speaking to the NCAA about

doing that.

I should also note that these athletes also get a lot of

support from our player development. That definitely goes

into the conversation, as well.

The players who wish to retain their eligibility, like Kalamazoo 18s champion Matt Forbes, are already able to offset their New York expenses with this prize money; part of Reese Brantmeier's lawsuit with the NCAA details just how difficult that was for her given the NCAA's petty questioning of her expenses when she played women's qualifying in 2021. Perhaps Allaster is referring to something else, but not referencing the Brantmeier litigation seems like an unforced error. With all the publicity UNC's Fiona Crawley received last year for her inability to take the money from her run from qualifying to the main draw, Allaster must be aware of the issue, which is certainly not going away with the increased popularity of the college development pathway.

An injunction hearing is scheduled for tomorrow; with Brantmeier's legal team filing this request early last month. If the injunction is granted, the NCAA would not be able to prohibit a student-athlete from taking his or her US Open prize money. I don't know when a decision based on this hearing will be announced, but obviously it's significant to many of the wild cards listed above.