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Each Grand Slam has the right to allocate its many wild cards however it chooses, of course.

And for the most part, Roland Garros hands them out to their own players, even those who don’t have any particular claim to having earned one.

So do the other Grand Slams, for the most part. It’s a major perk of trying to make you way up the pro ladder to be born in the U.S, France, the U.K. or Australia.

No one said life was fair.

But in the case of this year’s edition specifically, the era we’re in, there are so many notable players who need one.

And … every single one of them found the door shut in their face.

Without exception.

Halep, Wozniacki, Raducanu not up

The women’s main-draw wild cards were allocated as follows:

Alizé Cornet

Fiona Ferro

Elsa Jacquemot

Kristina Mladenovic

Chloe Paquet

Jesika Ponchet

Ajla Tomljanovic

Sachia Vickery

Cornet, who will retire in Paris, is currently ranked No. 99 and got something called the “Destination Roland-Garros, International Race”:” wild card. Basically, it turns out she’s the highest-ranked French player who didn’t get straight into the draw.

(Here’s what the “French Race” and “International Race” terms mean).

Tomljanovic, who just returned to play this week, was given Tennis Australia’s reciprocal, and Vickery got the USTA’s reciprocal wild card.

Ponchet got the “Destination Roland-Garros, French Race” pass that was to go to the quickly-rising Loïs Boisson. Unfortunately, Boisson injured her knee yesterday at the WTA 125 in Paris – after a whirlwind few months where she could hardly lose a match.

Ferro (a former top 50) is currently ranked No. 149 and on the comeback trail. Jacquemot is at No. 158. Mladenovic, a former women’s doubles champion and former top 10, has been wallowing outside the top 200 in singles for quite awhile now and is 31.

Ponchet is 27, and Paquet (ranked No. 133) is 29, so they’re hardly rising young players.

It should be noted that this isn’t the first time the French federation has been on the hotseat with this sort of thing.

French Federation says no to Sharapova wild card

No Thiem, Schwartzman on the men’s side

While you could argue that Diego Schwartzman, a former top 10 who announced he will retire early next year at home in Argentina, doesn’t deserve a wild card by divine right, the Dominic Thiem situation is a bit different.

He’s a former finalist at Roland Garros, the best clay-courter of his generation outside the Top 3. And he also is retiring this year, at age 30, after years of injuries he’s been unable to get back from.

Thiem made the finals in 2018 and 2019, and the semis in 2016 and 2017. Each time, he lost to either Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic.

The wild cards (with the exception of the reciprocals) also are going to French players.

Terence Atmane

Richard Gasquet

Pierre-Hugues Herbert

Harold Mayot

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard

Alexandre Müller

Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (USA)

Adam Walton (AUS)

The French players are mostly deserving, however you measure that; most of them have done well this year and are on the rise.

And Richard Gasquet, at age 37 and ranked No. 113, certainly deserves one. For Herbert, at 33 and ranked No. 140, it’s not quite the same slam-dunk although he did win the “French race” wild card.

Whither Wozniacki and Halep?

Wozniacki, whose current ranking is at No. 119, has played seven tournaments this year on seven wild cards. Only at Indian Wells, where she had a good draw and a nice run to the quarterfinals (where she retired against Iga Swiatek) has she won back-to-back matches.

She lost to Anhelina Kalinina both in Miami and Charleston. And she lost her opener to … qualifier Sara Errani in Madrid.

Wozniacki didn’t get a wild card in Rome (neither did Halep, or Raducanu). And she didn’t enter either of the WTA 125s this week. The Dane has never done particularly well in Paris; she has two quarterfinals on her long and illustrious resumé.

As for Halep, her ranking stands at No. 1149 after playing one match (and losing it) in Miami.

Halep returns to Paris this week (for a 125)

She was to return to action Tuesday at the WTA 125 in Paris (postponed to Wednesday because of persistent rain). But you wonder if she’d be playing it at all if she wasn’t working towards getting a wild card into Roland Garros – where she won in 2018 and made the final on two other occasions.

That said, she was actually practicing at Roland Garros Tuesday with Cornet.

Bucket list de fin de carrière :
Jouer avec Simona Halep sur le Philippe Chatrier ✅️

Un énorme kiff ! 😊https://t.co/Zda7QT3mpt

— Alize Cornet (@alizecornet) May 14, 2024

Loaded qualifying

Both Thiem and Schwartzman can play the qualifying, which begins next Monday.

So can Raducanu; so could Wozniacki, in theory.

Halep would need a wild card, if indeed she were interested. And that didn’t happen, either.

All of the qualifying wild cards have also gone to French players.

Women: Sarah Iliev (17, ranked No. 593), Séléna Janicijevic (21, ranked No. 242), Manon Léonard (23, No. 285), Astrid Lew Yan Foon (18, ranked No. 599), Jenny Lim (19, ranked No. 549), Daphnée Mpetshi Perricard (15, No. 1233), Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah (18, No. 563), Margaux Rouvroy (23, No. 277) and Alice Tubello (23, No. 442).

Men: Clément Chidekh (22, No. 290), Gabriel Debru (18, No. 337) Mathys Erhard (22, No. 338), Antoine Escoffier (32, No. 228), Thomas Faurel (18, No. 1940), Arthur Gea (19, No. 396), Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg (20, No. 538), Maé Malige (10, No. 736) and Théo Papamalamis (18, No. 998).