Lauren Davis Earns French Open Main Draw Wild Card
by Winning Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge
May 12, 2019 – Former world No. 26 Lauren Davis will compete in her seventh French Open main draw later this month, as the 25-year old Ohio native earned a wild-card entry by winning the women’s side of the USTA’s Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge.
Davis defeated 18-year old Pennsylvanian Ann Li, 7-5, 7-5, on Sunday to win the USTA Pro Circuit ITF World Tennis Tour W100 event in Bonita Springs, Fla., and earn 140 points toward her Challenge points total, enough to overtake second-place Whitney Osuigwe, 210-200, in the final standings.
The women’s side of the Challenge counts each players’ points from their best two results over the last four weeks. Davis also earned 70 points from a final appearance at the W80 in Dothan, Ala., in Week 1.
Davis played in every French Open main draw from 2012-17, reaching the second round in 2012. She didn’t play at Roland Garros last year as she skipped the entire European clay-court season, citing fatigue. Her ranking, which peaked at No. 26 in May 2017, fell to No. 264 last fall. Her best Grand Slam results have come at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, having reached the third round at Wimbledon once (2015) and in Melbourne three times, most recently in 2018, which ended with an epic 6-4, 4-6, 13-15 loss to Simona Halep.
Tommy Paul, 21, won the men’s side of the Challenge.
Click here to view the full Wild Card Challenge standings.
This is the eighth consecutive year the USTA has used a wild card challenge format to award French Open wild cards for American players. Previous Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge winners (and how they did at that year’s French Open) are below:
2019: Tommy Paul; Lauren Davis
2018: Noah Rubin (1R); Taylor Townsend (2R)
2017: Tennys Sandgren (1R); Amanda Anisimova (1R)
2016: Bjorn Fratangelo (2R); Taylor Townsend (2R)
2015: Frances Tiafoe (1R); Louisa Chirico (1R)
2014: Robby Ginepri (1R); Taylor Townsend (3R)
2013: Alex Kuznetsov (1R); Shelby Rogers (2R)
2012: Brian Baker (2R); Melanie Oudin (2R)
The 2019 French Open main draw will be held Sunday, May 26, to Sunday, June 9.
