{"id":929441,"date":"2026-10-15T20:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T20:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929441\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T20:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T20:18:15","slug":"kalieva-leads-ao-wild-card-challenge-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/929441\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalieva Leads AO Wild Card Challenge \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        Daily Fuzz<\/p>\n<p class=\"tn-article-dek\">The first week of the USTA&#8217;s Australian Open Wild Card Challenge is in the books. <\/p>\n<p>Chris OddoOctober 15, 20262 minute read<\/p>\n<p>        Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>        1\u00d7<br \/>\n        \u2715<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"tn-article-hero\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/australian-open-logo-.jpg\" alt=\"Kalieva Leads AO Wild Card Challenge\"\/>      <\/p>\n<p>Elvina Kalieva has taken the early lead in the USTA\u2019s 2027 Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, thanks to a semifinal appearance at the WTA 125 event in Suzhou, China.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old American, ranked No. 112, has earned 49 points through the first of five weeks of competition, with Kaitlyn Carnicella (33 points) and Fiona Crawley (27) rounding out the top three.<\/p>\n<p>Madison Brengle and Claire Liu are fourth and fifth, respectively.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tennisexpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792095493_5_Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\" alt=\"tennis express pro player gear\" class=\"wp-image-54451\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Women\u2019s Wild Card Challenge Standings<\/p>\n<p>After Week 1 of 5 \u2014 October 15, 2026<\/p>\n<p>RankPlayerWTA RankPoints1Elvina Kalieva112492Kaitlyn Carnicella674333Fiona Crawley208274Madison Brengle188205Claire Liu9615<\/p>\n<p>The women\u2019s competition, which began October 5 and concludes the week of November 2, awards a main-draw wild card to the eligible American who earns the most ranking points from a maximum of three tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the men\u2019s Australian Open Wild Card Challenge gets underway October 19 and runs through the week of November 16, with players counting their best four tournament results.<\/p>\n<p>The wild cards are awarded through a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Previous Australian Open Wild Card Challenge Winners<\/p>\n<p>Includes Australian Open singles results (1R = first round, etc.)<\/p>\n<p>YearMen\u2019s Wild CardWomen\u2019s Wild Card2026Patrick Kypson (1R)Elizabeth Mandlik (1R)2025Nishesh Basavareddy (1R)Iva Jovic (2R)2024Patrick Kypson (1R)McCartney Kessler (2R)2023Chris Eubanks (2R)Taylor Townsend (2R)2022Stefan Kozlov (2R)Robin Anderson (1R)2020Marcos Giron (1R)CoCo Vandeweghe (1R)2019Jack Sock (1R)Whitney Osuigwe (1R)2018Tim Smyczek (2R)Kristie Ahn (1R)2017Michael Mmoh (1R)Kayla Day (1R)2016Noah Rubin (2R)Samantha Crawford (1R)2015Denis Kudla (1R)Irina Falconi (2R)2014Steve Johnson (1R)Sachia Vickery (1R)2013Rhyne Williams (1R)Madison Keys (3R)2012Jesse Levine (1R)Madison Keys (1R)2011Ryan Harrison (1R)Lauren Davis (1R)2010Ryan Harrison (1R)CoCo Vandeweghe (1R)2009John Isner (1R)Christina McHale (1R)2008Jesse Levine (2R)Madison Brengle (1R)2007No competitionMadison Brengle (1R)<\/p>\n<p>Tennis Express \u2022 Pro Player Gear \u2022 Shop what the pros play with<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tennisexpress.com\/collections\/pro-player-gear?utm_source=tennisnow&amp;utm_medium=article-banner&amp;utm_campaign=pro-player-gear\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener sponsored nofollow\" data-tnc-partner=\"tennis-express\" data-tnc-placement=\"article-banner\"><img class=\"tnc-ad-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792095495_513_tennis-express-pro-player-gear.jpg\" alt=\"Tennis Express \u2022 Pro Player Gear \u2022 Shop what the pros play with\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daily Fuzz The first week of the USTA&#8217;s Australian Open Wild Card Challenge is in the books. Chris&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-929441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}