How do Tennis Players Qualify for Grand Slams?

Grand Slams in Tennis are the most prestigious tournaments conducted by 4 countries. The year-long schedule of the tournaments starts with the Australian Open in the month of January, French Open in May, Wimbledon in July, and U.S. Open in September. These grand slams in tennis fetch the player highest ranking points and huge media coverage. They also have heavy prize money, which makes them a dream for every professional tennis player.

So, how does one get into the majors of Tennis Grand Slams?

Well, a total of 128 players get a chance to participate in the grand slam majors, for both singles and doubles. And there are three ways in which players can get into the majors of the tournament.

1. Rank among the top 104 players in the world
2. By getting through the qualifiers round.
3. Wildcard Entry

Singles

The Ranking System

Players who rank in the top 104 of the ATP ranking get a direct entry into the tournament. However, if any of these players opt out of the tournament for reasons like injury or any other reasons, the next players in the ranking list are selected. 

For instance, if players ranked #6, #67, #79 decide to drop out of the tournament, the next 3 players in the ranking list after 104 are selected. Most of the time there are a lot of drop outs from the tournament due to injuries and other personal problems, and many players in the ranking list after 104 get their chance of qualifying for the tournament directly.

The players also can get in through the protected ranking system as well. In this system the players can get back into the competition after they have taken a break at least for six months to heal from an injury. The player can freeze his or her ranking and once they are ready to play after recovery they can directly get into the tournament with their protected ranking. 

The Qualifiers

Out of the total 128 players in the tournament, only 16 of them get through qualifiers. They have to play a series of qualifying rounds out of which each player needs to win 3 rounds in order to get into the grand slam tournament. 

This is a tough phase as a total of 119 participate in the qualifiers and only 16 of them make it to the final list. Emma Raducanu (winner of US Open 2021) was the first player in the history of Grand Slams to win the title as a qualifier. They need to win a total of 10 matches which is not an easy task.

Wildcard Entries

Another way to get into the majors of the grand slams is through the wild cards entry system. The tournament committee has the discretionary power to provide 8 players with wildcards. This enables them to participate in the tournament without playing the qualifiers.

Players are offered wildcards for reasons like:

• Young Talents
• Home country players
• Crowd pullers and fan favourites
• Title winning legends

Doubles

The Ranking System

For the doubles players, only 64 pairs get to participate in the main draws. Out of these 64 pairs, 57 pairs get in through ranking and the remaining 7 are generally wild card entries. The doubles players can either use their singles ranking or their doubles ranking. The rankings of both the players are added and 57 pairs with lowest ranking are selected. 

The Qualifiers

There are no qualifying rounds for doubles. They get into the tournament only through the ranking system or through wild card entries.

The Wild Card Entry

The players who get wild card entry can use the opportunity to play doubles as well. They can either use their singles or doubles ranking, whichever is the lowest.