Explained: What is a 'lucky loser' in tennis and how is one selected?

With Matteo Berrettini withdrawing from Wimbledon due to a positive COVID-19 test , Sweden’s Elias Ymer entered the men’s singles draw. A day earlier, Marin Cilic had also withdrawn after testing COVID-19 positive with his place going to Nuno Borges. They weren’t the only lucky players in the first two days of All England Championships. Yue Yuan, Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove and Stefan Kozlov are some of the other players reaping benefits of the lucky loser rule in tennis.

What is a lucky loser?

A lucky loser is a player who loses a match in qualifying, but then enters the main draw to replace the qualified individual. It is when the person who entered the main draw has to withdraw for a reason. The reasons for the withdrawal could vary such as illness, injury, or other unexplained reasons. In such a scenario, their place goes to the lucky loser.

It must be clarified, lucky loser can only take a qualified player’s place if the main drawn player’s withdrawal happens after qualifying tournament has started and before the first point of their match gets underway.

The official Grand Slam rulebook defines it as, “Lucky Losers are those players who have lost in the final round of the Qualifying competition or, if more Lucky Losers are required, those players who have lost in the previous qualifying rounds.”

Theoretically, everyone who plays in qualifying can be a lucky loser. Realistically, only the players who made the final round of qualifying stand a chance. The likely exceptions being when there are more than 8 substitutions required (or four, depending on the size of the draw) or if the players who made the final round of qualifying are not physically present on site.

What is the order of selection of lucky losers?

First priority goes to the players that lost in the final round of qualifying. Among the defeated players in final round of qualifying, the individual with the ranking gets preference. It doesn’t matter who has a higher ranking considering it is all about being ranked at this stage.

Second, players with ranks are then randomly drawn. It doesn’t matter who the higher ranked player is. A player ranked 135 could precede one ranked 578 in the random list.

The rule book says, “Lucky Losers shall be selected based on the rankings used for the determination of qualifying seedings as follows: The order of the four (4) highest ranked players shall be randomly drawn, thereafter the order shall follow the players’ rankings, unless there are more than two (2) main draw withdrawals at the time the Qualifying competition is finished in which case the size of the random draw will be the number of withdrawals plus two.”

Why select players randomly and not on merit of rankings?

Simply put: to fend off match fixing, bribery or unsporting tactics. At 2005 Wimbledon, Justin Gimelstob was due to face George Bastl in the final round of qualifying. Gimelstob, the highest ranked player remaining in qualifying, aggravated a chronic back complaint during his second qualifying round.

Gimelstob planned to withdraw but was urged by officials to play at least one game, as it was certain someone would withdraw from the main draw before the tournament began. It would give Gimelstob a chance to recover and to play the main draw.

As expected, Andre Agassi pulled out and Gimelstob took his place. He reached the third round before losing to Lleyton Hewitt.

While Gimelstob acting within the rules of the game, it was considered unethical raising concerns over it being abused and making matches uncompetitive.

Who are the notable winners who came through as lucky losers?

Andrey Rublev was knocked out in final round of qualifying at the 2017 Croatian Open. The Russian was reinstated into the main draw a day later as a lucky loser and he then went on to win the title in Umag, while only conceding a single set along the way. More recently, Marco Cecchinato won the Hungarian Open as a lucky loser in 2018.

Among women, Olga Danilovic is attributed to be the first WTA player to win a WTA tour level title as a lucky loser. Since then, 15-year-old Coco Gauff beat Jelena Ostapenko in Austria to succeed as a lucky loser.

Special mention must be made out to Peter Polansky. The Canadian player secured a “Lucky Loser Grand Slam” by qualifying for all four majors in 2018 as a lucky loser. Unfortunately for him, he lost all four of his matches in the first round.

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