{"id":957,"date":"2012-10-25T13:01:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T17:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavytopspin.com\/?p=957"},"modified":"2012-10-25T13:01:16","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T17:01:16","slug":"who-takes-advantage-of-wild-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/25\/who-takes-advantage-of-wild-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Takes Advantage of Wild Cards?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, we saw that ATP tour-level wild cards are the privilege<\/a> of just a small subset of top pros. \u00a0If you play for a Grand Slam-hosting country, or you are a major junior prospect, you’ll get plenty. \u00a0If you fit neither of those categories, you’re on your own. \u00a0Donald Young<\/a> gets 27 wild cards while better players work for years to earn<\/em> their way into as many as 27 ATP main draws.<\/p>\n

This discrepancy raises plenty of questions, not least the issue of whether the wild card status quo is good for tennis.<\/p>\n

The title of this post raises another: Who used those wild cards to rocket to the top? \u00a0Andy Roddick<\/a> is one, having amassed a 20-9 record<\/a>, including two titles and one Masters-level quarterfinal, from 11 wild cards spots in 2000 and 2001. \u00a0On the flip side is Nicolas Mahut<\/a>, who received 9 tour-level wild cards before his 25th birthday, winning only one match<\/a>–and that one by retirement.<\/p>\n

When players do take advantage of their wild cards and string a few wins together, what are we to make of them? \u00a0Roddick was clearly on his way to the top. \u00a0After winning Atlanta<\/a> and Houston<\/a> in back-to-back weeks in 2001, he never needed a wild card again. \u00a0But other highly-touted Americans, such as Jesse Levine<\/a> and Ryan Sweeting<\/a>, never manage to get their ranking fully out of wild card territory. \u00a0They’ll both probably receive more, taking opportunities to win a tour-level match or two that gives their rankings a boost.<\/p>\n

The ranking effect of a tour-level win or two compounds the effects that keep down players like Grega Zemlja<\/a>. \u00a0First, someone like Levine or Frank Dancevic<\/a> receives a substantial number of wild cards, consistent opportunities to play in a main draw that other, similarly-ranked players don’t get. \u00a0Then, unless they really aren’t that good, or they get a slew of unlucky draws, they win a match or two. \u00a0A mere appearance in a Grand Slam main draw is worth 10 ranking points; a single win gets you another 35. \u00a0In some challenger events, you need to reach the final<\/em> to earn that many points.<\/p>\n

More ranking points, of course, lead to a higher ranking. \u00a0A higher ranking leads to more direct entries into tournaments. \u00a0And then, somehow, you have Donald Young in the top 50.<\/p>\n

Thus, “taking advantage” of wild cards has strong positive and<\/em> negative connotations. \u00a0Guys like Roddick and Federer were ready to compete at the highest level before their rankings said they were, so they took advantage of their opportunities to the fullest. \u00a0But when a player gets 10 wild cards and wins four matches, he’s made the best of his situation in a manner that exploits the inequities of the ATP tour.<\/p>\n

After the jump, find a table that shows everyone currently in the top 200 who received at least four tour-level wild cards before their 25th birthday. \u00a0(I’m using that age as a cutoff to avoid counting wild cards handed to players on the comeback trail or a retirement tour.) \u00a0It’s sorted by number of wild cards received pre-25. \u00a0For a sortable table, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rk    Player                 Cty  WCs  Matches   W   L  W\/WC  \n175   Donald Young           USA   27       37  10  27  0.37  \n26    Mardy Fish             USA   24       44  21  23  0.88  \n61    Ryan Harrison          USA   21       35  14  21  0.67  \n23    Sam Querrey            USA   20       40  20  20  1.00  \n69    Jesse Levine           USA   17       21   4  17  0.24  \n11    John Isner             USA   16       35  19  16  1.19  \n544   Chris Guccione         AUS   16       29  13  16  0.81  \n48    Bernard Tomic          AUS   15       23   8  15  0.53  \n112   James Blake            USA   15       19   4  15  0.27  \n13    Richard Gasquet        FRA   14       20   6  14  0.43  \n332   Alex Bogdanovic        GBR   14       18   4  14  0.29  \n127   Michael Llodra         FRA   13       23  11  12  0.85  \n800   Prakash Amritraj       IND   13       20   7  13  0.54  \n20    Tommy Haas             GER   12       28  16  12  1.33  \n68    Gael Monfils           FRA   12       27  15  12  1.25  \n146   Ryan Sweeting          USA   12       19   8  11  0.67  \n29    Andy Roddick           USA   11       29  20   9  1.82  \n1     Roger Federer          SUI   11       22  11  11  1.00  \n250   James Ward             GBR   11       18   7  11  0.64  \n101   Paul Henri Mathieu     FRA   11       15   4  11  0.36  \n57    Brian Baker            USA   11       14   3  11  0.27  \n3     Andy Murray            GBR   10       25  15  10  1.50  \n91    Lleyton Hewitt         AUS   10       23  14   9  1.40  \n289   Robby Ginepri          USA   10       23  13  10  1.30  \n279   Andreas Beck           GER   10       19   9  10  0.90  \n164   Jack Sock              USA   10       16   6  10  0.60  \n62    Grigor Dimitrov        BUL   10       14   4  10  0.40  \n139   Wayne Odesnik          USA   10       13   3  10  0.30  \n1566  Cecil Mamiit           PHI   10       11   1  10  0.10  \n49    Robin Haase            NED    9       16   7   9  0.78  \n16    Kei Nishikori          JPN    9       15   6   9  0.67  \n136   Frank Dancevic         CAN    9       15   6   9  0.67  \n31    Marcos Baghdatis       CYP    9       13   4   9  0.44  \n130   Thiemo De Bakker       NED    9       13   4   9  0.44  \n85    Bjorn Phau             GER    9       11   2   9  0.22  \n96    Alex Bogomolov Jr      USA    9       11   2   9  0.22  \n71    Nicolas Mahut          FRA    9       10   1   9  0.11  \n93    Rajeev Ram             USA    8       13   5   8  0.63  \n8     Juan Martin Del Potro  ARG    7       17  10   7  1.43  \n107   Guillaume Rufin        FRA    7       14   7   7  1.00  \n100   Daniel Brands          GER    7       13   6   7  0.86  \n14    Marin Cilic            CRO    7       12   5   7  0.71  \n140   Mischa Zverev          GER    7       12   5   7  0.71  \n162   Denis Kudla            USA    7       11   4   7  0.57  \n73    Andrey Kuznetsov       RUS    7       10   3   7  0.43  \n152   Bobby Reynolds         USA    7       10   3   7  0.43  \n165   Steve Johnson          USA    7       10   3   7  0.43  \n143   Antonio Veic           CRO    7        9   2   7  0.29  \n174   Javier Marti           ESP    7        9   2   7  0.29  \n160   Adrian Mannarino       FRA    7        8   1   7  0.14  \n58    Xavier Malisse         BEL    6       14   8   6  1.33  \n33    Jeremy Chardy          FRA    6       12   6   6  1.00  \n38    Jurgen Melzer          AUT    6       12   6   6  1.00  \n17    Stanislas Wawrinka     SUI    6        9   3   6  0.50  \n60    Tatsuma Ito            JPN    6        9   3   6  0.50  \n18    Philipp Kohlschreiber  GER    6        8   2   6  0.33  \n46    Benoit Paire           FRA    6        8   2   6  0.33  \n167   Peter Polansky         CAN    6        8   2   6  0.33  \n151   Ernests Gulbis         LAT    5       12   7   5  1.40  \n22    Andreas Seppi          ITA    5       10   5   5  1.00  \n171   Marius Copil           ROU    5        9   4   5  0.80  \n44    Fabio Fognini          ITA    5        8   3   5  0.60  \n154   Ze Zhang               CHN    5        8   3   5  0.60  \n35    Feliciano Lopez        ESP    5        7   2   5  0.40  \n156   Igor Kunitsyn          RUS    5        7   2   5  0.40  \n25    Marcel Granollers      ESP    5        6   1   5  0.20  \n37    Julien Benneteau       FRA    5        5   0   5  0.00  \n128   Evgeny Donskoy         RUS    5        5   0   5  0.00  \n45    David Goffin           BEL    4        9   5   4  1.25  \n124   Josselin Ouanna        FRA    4        9   5   4  1.25  \n7     Jo Wilfried Tsonga     FRA    4        8   4   4  1.00  \n105   Igor Andreev           RUS    4        8   4   4  1.00  \n27    Mikhail Youzhny        RUS    4        7   3   4  0.75  \n74    Igor Sijsling          NED    4        7   3   4  0.75  \n90    Filippo Volandri       ITA    4        7   3   4  0.75  \n177   Teymuraz Gabashvili    RUS    4        6   2   4  0.50  \n181   Yuki Bhambri           IND    4        6   2   4  0.50  \n82    Simone Bolelli         ITA    4        5   1   4  0.25  \n115   Matthew Ebden          AUS    4        5   1   4  0.25  \n97    Philipp Petzschner     GER    4        4   0   4  0.00  \n186   Di Wu                  CHN    4        4   0   4  0.00<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, we saw that ATP tour-level wild cards are the privilege of just a small subset of top pros. \u00a0If you play for a Grand Slam-hosting country, or you are a major junior prospect, you’ll get plenty. \u00a0If you fit neither of those categories, you’re on your own. \u00a0Donald Young gets 27 wild cards while … Continue reading Who Takes Advantage of Wild Cards?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wild-cards"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}