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GlossaryTour

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.

Alsowildcard, wild cards, WC, wild-card entry, wildcards

Published

A wild card is a place in the draw handed out by the tournament rather than earned through the rankings or qualifying. Every event reserves a few spots in both the main and qualifying draws for them. They go to home players, promising juniors, former champions, players returning from long injuries whose ranking has collapsed, or a star who missed the entry deadline. The Grand Slam Rule Book puts it plainly: wild cards are "players who are included in the draw at the sole discretion of the individual Grand Slam Tournament."

When you see it

Draw sheets mark them "WC". A wild card may be seeded if their ranking justifies it, must be named when the draw is made, and cannot be given to a player who has already competed in that tournament's qualifying. Tournaments may not accept payment for one. The 2026 US Open men's draw had eight wild cards among its 128 players. The best-known wild card story is Goran Ivanišević, ranked 125th and invited on the strength of three earlier finals, who won Wimbledon in 2001: the first wild card to win a Grand Slam singles title, and still the only one in men's singles.

Rule basis

ATP Official Rulebook, Chapter VII, 7.12 (Wild Cards); Grand Slam Rule Book 2026, Main Draw entries, section b (Wild Cards).

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Protected ranking · A frozen ranking that lets a player back from at least six months out through injury enter tournaments as if they had never stopped; not valid for seeding.

Mentioned in

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. 03Wikipedia · Wild card (sports) (tennis section)retrieved
  4. 04Tennis Majors · July 9, 2001: The day Goran Ivanisevic finally won Wimbledonretrieved
  5. 05Wikipedia · 2001 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singlesretrieved
  6. 06Wikipedia · 2026 US Open – Men's singlesretrieved