{"id":89237,"date":"2025-08-17T09:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T09:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89237\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T09:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T09:55:10","slug":"us-open-told-they-have-made-an-embarrassing-decision-with-one-wild-card-selection-what-are-we-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89237\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open told they have made an \u2018embarrassing\u2019 decision with one wild card selection, \u2018what are we doing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The US Open is one of tennis\u2019 most prestigious prizes, and to win it guarantees any player a level of fame never before seen.<\/p>\n

After all, whilst Wimbledon is steeped in tradition, and Roland Garros\u2019 legacy is immaculate, this New York event has commercialised the sport like no other, and draws record viewers every single year.<\/p>\n

It is likely this added pressure, combined with the cauldron that is the American crowd, that has thrown up so many surprise winners over the years.<\/p>\n

Stars like Carlos Alcaraz, Andy Murray and Coco Gauff all scored their first major title on Arthur Ashe, catapulting themselves into the stratosphere.<\/p>\n

\"2024Photo by Sarah Stier\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

With that in mind, the wild cards therefore play a huge role in offering young talent, particularly Americans, the chance to compete on this stage.<\/p>\n

And yet, there has been one selection amongst the US Open\u2019s<\/a> 16 singles wild cards named earlier this week that has drawn scrutiny.<\/p>\n

US Open slammed for one of their singles wild cards<\/p>\n

The pundit left particularly aggrieved about this decision was Catherine Whitaker, who spoke with great passion on The Tennis Podcast on the subject.<\/p>\n

Naturally, she was more than willing to accept Venus Williams\u2019 participation, as one of tennis\u2019 most iconic figures who has given so much to the sport.<\/p>\n

However, she did not echo that sentiment for the retiring Caroline Garcia, who has also been handed a wild card.<\/p>\n

Reflecting upon this news, she stated: \u201cFirst, the US Open wild cards have been announced, mostly sort of the names you\u2019d expect, young American hopefuls, that kind of thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut two names do jump out. One of those is 45-year-old Venus Williams, and one of those is apparently not retired Caroline Garcia. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaking the bloomin\u2019 most of it. I mean. Come on. Bianca Andreescu hasn\u2019t got a wild card, but Caroline Garcia has. It\u2019s\u2026 What are we doing? What are we doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Roberts reasoned: \u201cIt\u2019s the nonsense French reciprocal thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitaker responded with more frustration: Catherine Whitaker:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s how France are using their reciprocal wild, is it? That\u2019s embarrassing. That\u2019s embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Law questioned if a young French player might have benefitted more from this great honour than the 31-year-old, to which Whitaker ended her rant with her final claim: \u201cAnd Caroline Garcia is taking a wild card from a young French player. She\u2019s had a beautiful ceremony on Chatrier. It\u2019s not on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who else has the US Open gifted singles wild cards to?<\/p>\n

Whilst Garcia and Williams naturally headline the singles wild card selections across both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s, it is worth mentioning the rest, given they are likely to be names we will be hearing a lot more of in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Along with Williams, fellow Americans Clervie Ngounoue, Julieta Pareja, Caty McNally, Valerie Glozman and Alyssa Ahn have all been gifted main draw singles wild cards, with Garcia, a semi-finalist in 2022, and Australian Talia Gibson making up the rest of the women\u2019s lineup.<\/p>\n

Julieta Pareja is one to really keep an eye on, as a 16-year-old talent who reached the final of Wimbledon\u2019s junior event earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Barry Cowan gave his verdict on Venus Williams\u2019 wild cards<\/a> during her strong Washington performance a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the men\u2019s side, their American contingent consists of Nishesh Basavareddy, Tristan Boyer, Emilio Nava, Stefan Dostanic, Darwin Blanch and Brandon Holt, son of two-time Grand Slam champion Tracy Austin.<\/p>\n

However, with Matteo Berrettini\u2019s withdrawal, the latter has gained entry on his own merit, and Eliot Spizzirri will take his spot.<\/p>\n

There will also be entries for Tristan Schoolkate of Australia, and Valentin Royer, a Frenchman. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Open is one of tennis\u2019 most prestigious prizes, and to win it guarantees any player a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[47540,61186,99,428,11883],"class_list":{"0":"post-89237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-caroline-garcia","9":"tag-catherine-whitaker","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}