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FifthSet

GlossaryTour

Lucky loser

A player beaten in the final round of qualifying who gets into the main draw anyway when someone withdraws before their first match.

Alsolucky losers, LL, lucky-loser

Published

A lucky loser is a player who lost in the last round of qualifying and then gets into the main draw anyway, because a player already in it withdraws before their first match. The vacancy is filled from a list of the final-round losers who have signed in that morning; if more spots open than there are final-round losers, the previous round's losers become eligible. The lucky loser takes the withdrawn player's place in the draw, opponent included.

When you see it

The order of the list is mostly by ranking, with a twist. On the ATP Tour, if a vacancy already exists when qualifying ends, the two highest-ranked losers are drawn at random for it. At the Grand Slams the order of the four highest-ranked losers is always drawn by lot, so the best-ranked loser is not guaranteed the spot. Draw sheets mark them "LL". Lucky losers occasionally go deep: Jan-Lennard Struff became the first to reach an ATP Masters 1000 final, in Madrid in 2023, and at the 2026 US Open Arthur Gea, who came in when Casper Ruud withdrew, reached the fourth round and held a match point for what would have been the first major quarterfinal by a lucky loser.

Rule basis

ATP Official Rulebook, Chapter VII, 7.20 (Lucky Losers, Substitutions and Vacancies); Grand Slam Rule Book 2026, Main Draw entries, section h (Lucky Losers and Substitutions).

Related terms

  • Qualifier · A player who earned a main-draw place by winning through the qualifying tournament held in the days before the main event.
  • Wild card · A main-draw or qualifying place given at the tournament's discretion to a player whose ranking would not otherwise get them in.
  • Walkover · A win awarded without a ball being struck, because the opponent withdrew or could not start the match; recorded as "w/o".
  • Seeding · Ranking the strongest entrants and placing them in the draw so they cannot meet before the later rounds; the majors seed 32 players in singles.

Sources

Material claims in this article are supported by the following sources.

  1. 01ATP Tour · 2026 ATP Official Rulebook, Chapter VII: The Competitionretrieved
  2. 02International Tennis Federation · 2026 Official Grand Slam Rule Book (qualifying: lucky losers and substitutions; set format of main-draw matches)retrieved
  3. 03ATP Tour · Lucky Loser Struff Reaches Maiden Masters 1000 Finalpublished · retrieved
  4. 04Wikipedia · Lucky loser (tennis section)retrieved
  5. 05ATP Tour · Meet lucky loser Arthur Gea: From a place 'nobody knows' to US Open second weekpublished · retrieved
  6. 06ATP Tour · Van de Zandschulp saves MP in five-hr battle, reaches US Open QFspublished · retrieved