A "lucky loser" is the term used for a professional tennis player who gains entry into the main draw of a tournament after losing in the final round of qualifying. Even though he has lost, the player gains entry because another main draw entrant withdraws, typically due to injury. When a withdrawal occurs, the player with the highest ranking of all of the players who lost in the last round of qualifying gains entry to the tournament.
How Qualifying Works
All professional tournaments admit players into the main draw based on their rankings at a preassigned date. Players who do not make the rankings cut often are given the opportunity to compete in a qualifying tournament for a place in the main draw. This qualifying tournament also chooses its participants by ranking, but it also might offer "wildcards" to players who are deserving for whatever reason the tournament directors might decide. Once the qualifying draw is set, players who win a predesignated number of matches are placed into the main draw as qualifiers.
Grand Slams and Qualifying
The four major tennis tournaments, also known as the Grand Slams, have large qualifying tournaments that take place in the week before the tournament officially starts. In men's and women's singles, 128 qualifiers vie for 16 qualifying slots in the main draw. Players who win three matches consecutively win admittance to the tournament, and the larger prize money that is part of main draw participation.
Lucky Losers
For the players who have lost in the final match of a qualifying tournament, there still is hope of playing in the event. The highest-ranking player who has lost in the final round gains admittance to the main draw if one of the main draw participants is forced to withdraw. This process continues for as many withdrawals as the main draw encounters.
Lucky Losers and Grand Slams
American Justin Gimelstob had a direct effect on the way that the Grand Slams approach the lucky loser lottery. In 2005, when Gimelstob was the highest-ranked player in the last round of qualifying, he withdrew from his final match under the understanding that he had a very good chance of getting into the tournament as a lucky loser. Gimelstob, who had back problems at the time, decided that defaulting his final match and waiting for a withdrawal would give him more time rest, and when Andre Agassi withdrew from the tournament, his gamble paid off. In 2006, the Grand Slam tournaments reacted by introducing a lottery system in which the top four ranked qualifiers (or more if necessary) to lose in the last round enter a lottery system for the open spots.
Lucky Losers and Titles
Lucky losers rarely do well in tournaments, but there have been two who have won ATP men's singles titles in recent years. Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine won in Zagreb, Croatia, in 2008, and American Rajeev Ram won in Newport, Rhode Island, in 2009. A lucky loser has never won a Grand Slam tournament.
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