French Open wildcards: Benoit Paire at a disadvantage?
The French Open is coming up soon, the main draw starts on May 28th. But which local heroes are there? Apparently not Benoit Paire – which causes a stir.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit:
May 14, 2023, 06:23 pm
You can't complain in France about the number of local heroes at the French Open 2023. Eleven players are directly qualified for the main draw, albeit Richard Gasquet as world number 44. and current number 1 in France seems to be placed a bit far behind. For women there are only six players, but Caroline Garcia is number 4.
So far so good. In addition to the players qualified via the world rankings, the French tennis association can of course also award wildcards, and of course it prefers to do that to locals - young talents, old stars, you basically have a pretty free hand.
French Open: Participation via "Race France" and "Race Internationale"
However, two requirements have been imposed. On the one hand, there is a certain "Race France" for the wildcard award - the free tickets awarded will go to Arthur Fils and Jessika Ponchet in 2023, who scored the most points in the tournaments that took place in France this year below the ATP events.
In addition, wildcards are awarded to the best players from France this year who are not already directly qualified for the main draw via the regular ranking ("Race Internationale"). That should now be Clara Burel and Hugo Gaston. That's what the FFT announced these days.
Wum and Wendelin say: The deadline is May 15th
The problem with the matter: The actual deadline should be May 15, and Benoit Paire had also written that in Clairefontaine. King Rauschebart apparently traveled to Francavilla, Italy, especially for the Challenger tournament and played there extremely successfully, reaching the final.
And now? Paire had been surprised at the premature announcement in the past few days. And L'Équipe explains that he is playing in Francavilla "to catch up a few of the 27 points I'm behind Hugo".
He did it with flying colours, by reaching the final he pushed ahead of Gaston in the annual race.
The FFT has not yet commented on the new situation.