Are tennis players abusing the current system when it comes to wild cards?
This debate has been rumbling on for some time in the sport and it exploded back into the headlines again when Britain’s Jack Draper took a wild card in the ATP 500 tournament in Washington this week and then pulled out the day before his opening match.
Draper completed all his media duties and even suggested he was confident the injury issues that have haunted him for over a year now were finally behind him, but he pulled out of the tournament a few hours after muttering those comments.
We saw a similar scenario with his fellow Brit Emma Raducanu in Rome back in May, as she spoke to the media and informed them that she was fully fit and ready to play in the WTA 1000 event before pulling out of the tournament half and hour after offering up those comments.
It was a strange chain of events that is hard to explain, but one facet of this story appears to be based around money.
More Tennis News
Players are obliged to complete media duties as part of their agreement to play in the tournament and if they don’t appear in front of the cameras and the written press, they will face financial penalties.
It’s hard to believe wealthy players of Draper and Raducanu’s calibre are worried about a relatively modest financial penalty, yet former Grand Slam champion Boris Becker was among those questioning why these last-minute withdrawals are becoming so familiar.
“Why does he often pull out the day before the tournament?” asked Becker, as he commented on Draper’s latest withdrawal. “He seemed to have good practice session with Shelton only yesterday!?”
Becker will not be alone in asking why top players appear to be going through the process of playing a tournament, telling the world’s media they are ready to play and then pulling out on the eve of the event.
Draper’s arm injury that has limited him to a handful of matches for the last 12 months is clearly now an injury that is threatening his entire career in tennis, but there are implications when a withdrawal comes after the main draw has been made.
It may also affect the decision of tournament directors when they are considering whether to give players wild cards as they need to be sure that their tournament will benefit from that call.
When he is fully fit, Draper is undoubtedly one of the big draws in the men’s game and one of the few players who will consider Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
The trouble is, Draper has not been since early 2025 and the debate over whether he deserves a wild card to play at the US Open has now been ramped up.
Draper is due to play with Jessica Pegula in the mixed doubles event that will precede the main draw at the US Open and by then, he will hope to have been handed a wild card into the men’s singles.
The Jack Draper who won the Indian Wells Masters title in March 2025 would be a contender to win the US Open, but that player has not been seen for over a year and new USTA chief Craig Tiley and his wild card committee have a big decision to make over whether to hand a player likely to be ranked outside of the top 150 by the time the US Open starts a chance to play in the final Grand Slam of the year.
READ NEXT: New US Open chief urged to be ‘a smart guy’ before making Jack Draper decision
