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Just another one of those great head shakers, as the All England Club has opted not to offer Canadian Milos Raonic a wild card into the singles draw this year.

They also passed on the opportunity last year, which is why Raonic himself told Open Court he wasn’t particularly optimistic about it on the second go-round.

The 2016 finalist was able to use his protected ranking to play in 2023. But the ATP rules state that you can only use that ranking for each Slam on one occasion.

Always listen to Milos; he usually knows.

The Daily Drill – Wednesday, June 19, 2024

The AELTC has gone full Brit on the men’s side this year with Liam Broady (30, No. 148), Jan Choinski (28, No. 177), Jacob Fearnley (22, No. 274), Arthur Fery (21, No. 249), Billy Harris (29, No. 162), Paul Jubb (24, No. 292) and Henry Searle (18, No. 570) getting the free passes.

There is an eighth wild card, still to be announced.

But that typically goes to the winner of the Ilkley Challenger, being played this week (this applies to the men only; a few women have received it in the past, but not since the pandemic). Among the seeded players there vying for that reward are veterans David Goffin (No. 4) and Richard Gasquet (No. 5).

Perhaps Raonic should have opted for the Ilkley Challenger, instead of Queen’s. Or perhaps Fery will win it all in Ilkley and open up a spot.

There was precedent, unfollowed

It should be noted that Wimbledon has gone out of state (so to speak) with men’s wild cards before. And on a regular basis, too.

Last year, they gave one to David Goffin.

In 2022, they gifted Tim Van Rijthoven and Stan Wawrinka.

In 2021, lucky recipients were Aussie Alex Bolt and a young Carlos Alcaraz. And they left two of them unused.

There was no event in 2020. But in 2019, they gave passes to Marcos Baghdatis, Dominik Koepfer and Feliciano Lopez, in addition to two left unused.

In 2018, Denis Kudla and Sergiy Stakhovsky were the beneficiaries.

In 2017, wild cards were given to Denis Shapovalov (the 2016 junior boys’ champion), Tommy Haas and Marton Fucsovics. All of whom lost in the first round.

We can be pretty confident that the AELTC will not explain the reasoning behind their wild-card decisions, though.

No problem going foreign for the women

On the other side of the coin, the AELTC had no problem going outside the boundaries of the British Isles to hand wild cards to Angelique Kerber, Naomi Osaka and Caroline Wozniacki on the women’s side..

The latter two of which, it should be pointed out, have never won Wimbledon. Nor made the final. Nor even particularly distinguished themselves on the grass. Ever.

That’s what makes the decision so … well, inconsistent.

Kerber is the 2018 champion, of course, and the 2016 runner-up. Osaka hasn’t played Wimbledon since 2019 – in 2021 and 2022 she played the other three majors, but took a pass on the grass – and hasn’t gotten past the third round in three tries.

Wozniacki played Wimbledon every single year from 2007 through 2019. She never got past the round of 16, most recently in 2017. It has historically been by FAR her worst major.

Perhaps the requirement for out-of-country consideration was … being a mom.

The Dane, who played in the Wimbledon legends invitational event last year, got wild cards into the US Open last summer and the Australian Open last January. She was unable to benefit from a protected ranking upon her return from retirement because of the length of her absence. Kerber and Osaka have used up both of their available Grand Slam protected ranking availabilities (in Australia, and at Roland Garros).

The other women’s singles wild cards have been awarded to Francesca Jones, Yuriko Miyazaki, Emma Raducanu and Heather Watson. With one more to come.

Raonic to Roehampton?

Raonic upset Brit Cameron Norrie in his first round at Queen’s Club, hitting an ATP-record 47 aces and saving two match points.

He’s set to face No. 4 seed Taylor Fritz on Wednesday.

Currently ranked No. 186 after just a few tournaments back, the Canadian did enter the Wimbledon qualifying, which takes place at Roehampton next week in rather more primitive conditions than the big show.

If he wants to play Wimbledon, he’ll have to get through three matches there next week. Which is already a tough thing to do, but even more so for a 33-year-old with little match play looking at playing best-of-five on grass if he can get through.

Raonic has never actually played the qualifying at Wimbledon. By the time he made his debut in 2011, he had already leaped into the top 100 with a run from the qualifying to the fourth round at the Australian Open and by summertime, he was ranked No. 25.

Other wild cards announced

The women’s qualifying wild cards go to: Emily Appleton, Amami Banks, Sonay Kartal, Hannah Klugman, Clervie Ngounoue, Mike Stojsavljevic and Mingge Wu, with two more spots to the winners of a wild-card playoff.

Of those, only Ngounoue – the 2023 junior girls’ champ – is a non-Brit.

It’s also worth noting that while the junior girls’ champion only gets a qualifying wild card, the boys’ champ (Searle) gets a main-draw wild card. Worth noting that while Searle is ranked No. 570 on the ATP Tour, Ngounoue is higher at No. 389, and No. 205 in doubles.

On the men’s side, in addition to the two wild-card spots, the wild cards go to Oliver Bonding, Charles Broom, Jay Clarke, Felix Gill, George Loffhagen and Jack Pinnington Jones, with one more to come.

Click here to see the full list, including doubles.

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