LL

Lucky losers (LL) are the players who have lost in the final round of the Qualifying competition or, if more Lucky Losers are required for substitutions, those players who have lost in the previous qualifying round(s).

Lucky loser (LL) status is a second chance for player(s) that didn’t succeed in the qualifying tournament. The LL spot in the main draw (MD) is never guaranteed and sometimes players need to risk some ‘waiting time’ but history shows that very often it’s worth it. We know the cases when lucky loser won the whole tournament, for example Marco Cecchinato in Budapest in 2018.

That means that theoretically every player who lost in the qualifying can be lucky loser. But in real life only players that reached final round of qualies can hope for getting in main draw using this pass.

Players that lost earlier than in the final round of qualifying can get into MD as LL only if:

• there are more than 8 substitutions required (or 4 – depending on the number of qualifiers);
• players that have lost in the qualifying final are not available to compete in MD (that would normally mean leaving the tournament just after losing Q match).

In theory every player that lost in qualifying event could potentially be lucky loser, but not everyone eventually will get that second chance.

Sometimes there are four extra spots, sometimes one and it also happens that all the players from main draw list are there to play their first round matches.

Most of the time there are more players willing to become LL than there are spots in main draw.

Let’s explain how this “extra chances” are distributed between the players.

First priority goes to the ones that lost in the last round of qualifying. They have priority over the players who have lost in the previous rounds of qualies.

Out of 8 (or 4 – again depending on number of qualifiers) players that have lost in the final round the priority goes to the ones that have ranking. It doesn’t matter how good the ranking is because the order will be randomly decided but the fact that player has (any) ranking gives advantage over the player without ranking.

That means that if there are 5 players with ranking and 3 without this 5 players have a priority over the other 3. Order within this 2 groups (ranked and unranked) is – as already mentioned – randomly drawn.

Many players think that the chance for LL is over once the sign in for main draw is over. But this is not true. Empty spots in the main draw can be created not only because of official withdrawal. Indeed, this is the most common situation but players who are really willing to get the LL spot should be aware about different cases as well. For example:

• MD player doesn’t show up for their 1st round match (without earlier withdrawal);
• MD player gets injured before their 1st round match;
• MD player gets injured during the warm up of their 1st round match;
• MD player comes for the tournament without valid documentation and is not allowed to play the tournament;
• MD player is more than 15 min late for their 1st round match.

In general we have to remember that MD players can withdraw or in any other way fail to play their match on different stage of the tournament. As long as they do it after the qualifying tournament has started and before the first point of their first round match they will be replaced by lucky loser.

Does a player have to sign the Lucky Loser list in order to replace withdrawing player depends of the timing of main draw player withdrawal.

Many players just after losing the final round of qualifying run to the referee’s office to sign the list for lucky losers. No need to do that as on that stage.

Day before 1st round main draw matches all players that have lost final qualifying match are automatically considered to be available to take the extra spot.

Even if player has a little chance to become LL, it is a good practice to inform the referee about leaving the tournament and not wanting to be considered as a potential lucky loser.

The situation is opposite on the next day, when first round matches are scheduled to start. That day only players that have personally sign the LL list (the latest 30 min before the start of 1st MD) will be considered get an extra spot if available.

Why day before the start of MD players don’t have to sign the list and the next day if they don’t do that they are not considered as potential LL?

The reason to sign the list is to prove that the player is on site and is ready to take the spot at any time. The spots for LLs are not always known in advance. It can turned out at the time of the match that the replacement is needed (for example when player unluckily gets injured during the warm up) then the Lucky Loser must be present on site.

Similarly there is no need to sign the list on the day of qualifying finals so day before main draw starts. First of all because everyone interested was present that day (players played their qualie matches) and secondly no MD matches that they so the last minute replacement will not happen that day.