The wildcards have been announced for the French Open which gets underway at Roland Garros later this month – and there have been some surprises.
Professional players will descend on Paris for the second major of the year and the draw is edging closer.
Some of the players selected for wildcards have caused a bit of a stir with some glaring omissions on the men’s and women’s side of things.
After the announcement, tennis fans have been reacting on social media. It’s fair to say that many are shocked.
Tennis fans all say the same thing after French Open wildcards are announced
It’s fair to say that this kind of news will always cause a bit of a storm, with fans always having their opinion on who should get the wildcards.
Journalist and tennis commentator Jose Morgado has delivered the wildcard picks on X.
One omission from the women’s side of the draw is Great Britain star Emma Raducanu.
The 2019 US Open champion is four places outside of an automatic place in the main draw. Now, she will now need to head to qualifying.
Further players to miss out on the women’s wildcard picks are Caroline Wozniacki and Simona Halep and they will both need to qualify too.
As for the men, the big – and somewhat upsetting – shock is that former finalist Dominic Thiem hasn’t been given one in his final year on tour.
He reached the final in 2018 and 2019, losing to Rafael Nadal on both occasions.
The French Tennis Federation’s decision is to reserve wildcards solely for local players and deals they have with other grand slam federations.
Naturally, the news has been met with some comments from tennis fans across the globe on social media.
We’ve looked at what they had to say after the wildcards were announced yesterday.
Thiem and Raducanu are surprising French Open omissions
This does feel a little bit mean and perhaps ill-thought-out – certainly in the case of Thiem.
He is a player who has reached two finals at Roland Garros. In his final year on tour, it just feels a little bit untoward.
Given that the curtain is coming down on his career, it remains to be seen whether he will have the desire to tackle a qualifying campaign.
Raducanu is another surprising call from the wildcard committee.
As a slam winner and a player with such a burgeoning reputation, she should have been given the call in our view.
Hopefully, Raducanu can go through qualifying or sneak into the main draw and make a mockery of this decision.
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