Last week was the last week before the six-week advance entry deadline, to get into the main draw at Roland Garros this year.

For the women, it fell poorly; there were no WTA-level tournaments at which a great performance might make the difference between the big pot available even to a first-round, main draw loser.

So some had to grind at the ITF level, and hope for the best.

For the men, there was a Masters 1000 (admittedly a lot tougher for players on the bubble to get into) and a number of Challenger events in the last-minute scramble.

Protected rankings legion among the women

The top 104 players in each of the men’s and women’s rankings on Monday are theoretically in, with the rest of the 128 slots going to qualifiers and wild cards.

Except … it’s hard to remember when there were so many players working on protected rankings. And awhile those players can’t be seeded with those rankings, they do bump everyone else down that acceptance list.

It’s too soon to know how far down the bumping will happen; most players with protected rankings will at least enter a Grand Slam, even if it’s unsure if they’ll be healthy enough to play by the time the actual tournament rolls around.

Here are the protected rankings that are in the Rome WTA entry list, which is a 96-player draw. It’s not a perfect guide, but it’s pretty good.

#31 – Angelique Kerber

#34 – Paula Badosa – At No. 93, Badosa should make it on her own. Barely.

#46 – Naomi Osaka

#49 – Irina-Camelia Begu

#51 – Shelby Rogers

#54 – Daria Saville – Saville has used up her two allotted GS entries but at No. 95 in the actual rankings, should make it.

#59 – Lauren Davis

#61 – Amanda Anisimova

#99 – Aleksandra Krunic

#103 – Emma Raducanu

Add to that some players who aren’t playing Rome but could, possibly, try to take advantage of their ranking: Zhang Shuai (No. 48); Bianca Andreescu (No. 64); Julia Grabher (No. 73), Katerina Baindl (No. 86), Zheng Saisai (No. 89), and even Wang Qiang (No. 94) and Alison Van Uytvanck (No. 97).

Grabher, notably, has played the last two weeks, after being out since before last year’s US Open. Wang Qiang, who had been out since Sept. 2022, played a $40K ITF in China last week. Out since last September, Davis returned at Charleston two weeks ago.

Andreescu is training in Monte Carlo, although she’s not entered in Rome.

Even allowing for those who might enter, but not make the date, there could be as many as 10 players with protected rankings amongst the 104.

And that means the cutoff could be as low as the mid 90s.

With first-round losers likely to pocket some $75,000 US this year, it’s a big deal.

You can add a few spots there as a few players in the top 100 are … a little busy with babies coming (Kvitova, Bencic) or dealing with a long-term injury (Muchova).

So here are the players between the two lines above who are very much on the bubble with Monday’s deadline.

Even if they significantly improve their lot in the weeks leading up to the tournament, it won’t change their order in this entry list. At best, it would improve their seeding in the qualifying.

The biggest winner the last few weeks was the Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, who launched herself into pretty safe territory. At the end of March, she was ranked No. 127.

Fewer issues with the men

There aren’t nearly as men working on protected rankings these days.

But there are some.

Notable among them is Rafael Nadal, whose PR is No. 9 but who obviously won’t need to use it at the tournament he’s won… a time or two.

Others likely to use their protected ranking:

#21 – Marin Cilic

#27 – Denis Shapovalov

#80 – Kwon Soonwoo

Milos Raonic’s PR is No. 33, but he’s not expected to play Roland Garros.

So that leaves the likely cutoff at No. 101 or No. 102.

It’s not as dire as a year ago, when those lists were longer – and very different from this year’s group:

Notables on the bubble

Thanasi Kokkinakis did himself a TON of good on Sunday – just in time – when he won the Sarasota Challenger and got his ranking up to No. 94. So did France’s Corentin Moutet.

Matteo Berrettini did himself a lot of good with his title in Marrakech; it insulated him from the points he drops Monday from Monte Carlo 2023. He, too, should make it.

But former Roland Garros finalist Dominic Thiem may have put himself out of the running (although he, like Caroline Wozniacki and former champion Simona Halep, will lobby hard for wild cards even as the French Federation hugely prioritizes its own players).

They will closely be watching the injuries, and the withdrawals, in the coming weeks.

But for the players who are even half-healthy, they’ll typically leave a withdrawal to the last minute. Once the qualifying begins, it’s over for the alternates – who must then try to fight through three rounds of qualifying.

That’s especially true as they can still grab part of the prize money with a late withdrawal, giving a healthier player from the qualifying a chance to play.

That’s a rule added in recent years as players were showing up for the payday either in no shape to play, or retiring after a few games.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – A year ago in the California desert, 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu had both her wrists wrapped so tightly, it was impressive that she could hold a racquet at all.

She told Open Court then that they were trying various things, to “spread the load” on the wrists in hopes of reducing the pain and inflammation.

It certainly didn’t look good at all. And yet, somehow, she defeated Danka Kovinic, Magda Linette (No. 21) and Beatriz Haddad Maia (No. 13) in succession before going down to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Here’s what we wrote back then.

After trying again in Miami and playing a good match in defeat to Bianca Andreescu in the first round, and trying one last time in Stuttgart – a tournament sponsored by her personal sponsor, Porsche – that was it for the year.

She had surgeries on her wrists and ankle.

And now, a year after it was clear something had to give, she’s back in the desert ranked No. 250, on a wild card. Perhaps a blessing is that the expectations surrounding her – once so lofty because of her precocious, premature and unexpected success – have pretty much died down.

Overall, Raducanu has played pretty well so far in 2024, and lost to good players often in great form.

Here’s what she looked like on the practice court in the desert on Tuesday.

Thursday’s first-round match is against qualifier Rebeka Masarova, a hard-hitting Swiss-turned-Spaniard who looks like a younger Pliskova cousin.

If Milos Raonic’s return after nearly two years away came complete with some bumps in the grass last month, the best news is that he is indeed back.

And in less than two weeks, the 32-year-old Canadian is looking forward to playing at home in Toronto for the first time in five years, then Cincinnati, and then the US Open.

If we missed enjoying him compete, our chat with him today via Zoom was a reminder of how edifying a conversation with him is (especially the topics broached before the “record” button got hit ).

He engages – trust, this is NOT the norm in our business – and he’s forthcoming. And he usually ends up making you consider situations you sort of thought you had a handle on through a vastly different prism. That’s gold.

Raonic is currently a train ride away from Arthur Ashe Stadium, hitting with some college players and getting ready to take on the hard courts. He said the physical issues that came up on the grass have healed. And he’s eager to get to Toronto in a few days, see his family and prepare for his long-awaited return to Aviva Stadium.

We also talked about … steak. Lots and lots of steak. Far too much steak – for the win.

Kids, don’t try that one at home.

UPDATE: Late Sunday, hours before he was scheduled to take to No. 1 Court, Kyrgios pulled the plus on his participation at Wimbledon. Body just not ready. ***

After missing the Australian swing – and everything since then – because of a knee issue that required surgery, 2022 Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios had high hopes as he made the trip to Europe to start his 2023 campaign on the grass.

It hasn’t worked out well for him at all. And with Wimbledon a week away, there’s nothing to be too optimistic about after he lit the tournament on fire a year ago, losing only to Novak Djokovic in the final.

He lost in the first round of Stuttgart to Wu Yibing, and looked in pretty rough shape in the process.

After that, he asked his fans for some patience.

But then, he withdrew from Halle last week.

And now, he’s out of Mallorca – his last chance to get some matches before Wimbledon.

Here’s what he said (video supplied by the Mallorca Open).

“With Wimbledon around the corner, Mallorca was such a good tournament for me last year to prepare for my run I had at Wimbledon. I think this year I was trying to do the same thing coming here. The preparation, the courts, everything here is amazing. And, you know, it’s a beautiful place as well,” Kyrgios said. “So unfortunately, my body’s not as healthy as it was last year, but it’s still an ample part of my preparation to go into Wimbledon.”

Kyrgios’s ranking will drop to No. 33 on Monday. But he will still be seeded at Wimbledon, and you’d think he’ll remain in the draw until the very last minute, hoping he can be healthy enough to play best-of-five.

ROLAND GARROS – This time of the season is a fairly key period for Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime.

It’s the second Grand Slam tournament of the season, with the resultant ranking points and prize money. But it’s also a time when the 22-year-old Canadian, whose major sponsors are France-based, wants to shine and valuate those relationships.

Unfortunately for Auger-Aliassime, Roland Garros hasn’t been good to him so far in his career. And on Monday, the bad news continued as he went out 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 to Fabio Fognini of Italy.

His Roland Garros is over – almost before it began.

Shoulder – and an untimely illness

It wasn’t enough that Auger-Aliassime was dealing with a shoulder injury – an issue with the clavicle that most affects his powerful forehand.

That wasn’t great. And to literally add insult to injury, he fell sick with a stomach virus the night before his match with Fognini. He didn’t get much sleep – and no doubt he left out some of the more … visceral details of his Sunday night.

But he gamely took the court, with the sounds of the BNP Paribas supporters’ brass band cheering him on (he’s a face of BNP Paribas).

But by the end of the first set, it was clear something was up. The first thought was that it might have been the knee, which caused him to miss Monte Carlo last month and has been an ongoing problem, that was affecting his movement.

But he took a bathroom break, and then was given something by the tournament medical staff for cramping.

“I saw the doctor before the match, and I thought maybe there was something I could take, electrolytes, to help me with my cramps, but I wasn’t really in good shape,” he said. “Maybe it helped me a little bit. I may have had a little less cramps than I would have had, but I was far from being able to win.”

As we’ve all experienced, this type of thing will cause you to become very dehydrated – hence the cramping on a surprisingly warm day, with the sun beating down on the players’ heads.

“I woke up this morning trying – I mean, it’s like I’ve been struggling with a few things, and an
you believe it, I get sick the day before my match?” a downcast Auger-Aliassime said afterwards in a press conference. “I wasn’t sure whether I should keep going or give myself a shot or if I should stop. It was a difficult time, but it’s okay. I just need to get healthy again.”

Second time in two weeks

Add to that the fact that while Auger-Aliassime was given a green light to compete and not risk making the shoulder issue worse, it … wasn’t good. He was trying to manage with therapy and anti-inflammatories. But Auger-Aliassime’s game is built around his big serve and forehand. With the issue affecting the forehand, he’s not the same player.

More concerning is the fact that Auger-Aliassime said he suffered the same stomach issues last week in Lyon, where he won a match but withdrew before his quarterfinal with the shoulder problem.

Already out of Paris, he’ll have a full two weeks to look into things – more detailed examination of the shoulder, and a battery of tests to decipher the gastrointestinal issue.

“I hope that will help and I can play on grass in two or three weeks, but it’s difficult to say. I think I must go home, take some tests because I didn’t have time to do the specific tests. I have to do a battery of tests to see why I was sick here, why I was sick a week ago and, see what’s happening,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I tried everything. I tried to hang on, but next time I’m on the court I want to be in good shape.”

Here’s what it looked like.

The curse of Lyon

Auger-Aliassime took a wild card into Lyon, which is the week before Roland Garros, to get some matches after losing his opening matches in both Madrid and Rome. Those expanded, two-week tournaments might have their pluses. But if you lose early in both (as his compatriots Leylah Fernandez and Bianca Andreescu both did as well), you find yourself having gone through an entire month of the season, having only two matches in the books.

That’s hardly ideal preparation for a Grand Slam tournament. And so – despite what happened last time he went to Lyon at the ATP Tour level, Auger-Aliassime decided to go.

That’s when the shoulder issue began. And the first bout with illness.

Back in 2019, still just 18 years old, Auger-Aliassime played Lyon ahead of his main-draw debut at Roland Garros. And he was to be seeded, as well.

He made the final. But he injured his adductor in the process. He did play the match against Benoit Paire, but he was clearly hampered and a few days later, had to withdraw from his Roland Garros debut.

After 2019, Auger-Aliassime lost in the first round at Roland Garros to Yoshihito Nishioka (early in his career, this man was an absolute beast for the Canadian to play) in 2020, and then to a late-career Andreas Seppi in 2021.

But a year ago, he made the fourth round. And he went five sets with the man who went on to win his 14th Roland Garros crown, Rafael Nadal.

It was an impressive a performance as he’s displayed, perhaps in his career – especially given the disparity in accomplishment with his opponent on this particular surface.

He had a good draw, no doubt. But he also came back from losing the first two sets, 6-2, 6-2 to Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru in the first round.

At the same time, after being in the top tier for the last year and a half, Auger-Aliassime is almost certainly going to fall out of the top 10 after the tournament. It’s impossible to predict how far – although he’ll likely still be in the top 15 – because the results of a chunk of players in the No. 11 – No. 22 range have yet to be determined.

It’s symbolic, more than anything – an arbitrary line in the sand, a round number to delineate the very best. But it still is.

Going back to the start of 2022, Auger-Aliassime has been in the top 10 for the last 28 consecutive weeks – and 57 of the last 62 weeks.

Eyes on FAA in Paris

The “quinzaine” in Paris is fairly key off the court for Auger-Aliassime as well.

While it seems Canadian companies (bar a couple of smaller collaborations) have been slow to step up to the plate for a player who literally checks every box you could want, he’s … BIG in France.

He has been everything in the leadup to Roland Garros – and he’s not even French. It’s a lot of responsibility.

More on that here.

Auger-Aliassime dismissed the notion that nerves might be a factor in all of this.

“There are still quite a lot of tournaments coming up and I trust that if things get better, I will be able to play well and have good moments on the court this year. I shouldn’t panic. It’s a difficult time. I have to do my best, taking into account the situation,” he said. “No, I don’t think (nerves are a factor). You can come to any hypothesis, but I don’t think I’m being nervous. It’s not my first Paris Grand Slam. It’s not my first Grand Slam. It’s just that I’m not feeling well.

“I was not feeling very nervous these days. I just got up and wasn’t feeling well. That’s all.”

It’s been a gradual trend. But it’s now become the norm.

With the cutoff for entry at Grand Slam tournaments at the top 104, a player could be pretty certain of getting directly in at the deadline if they were top 100.

But every year, it seems as though that’s less and less of a slam dunk.

The reason for that is the increasing number of players who get in with their injury protected rankings.

Case in point: this year’s Roland Garros.

The deadline for singles entry came Monday. And with every player entered with the exception of No. 26 Simona Halep, the last player directly in on the initial women’s singles entry list is Tereza Martincova.

The last player directly in on the men’s side is Alexsander Shevchenko.

Martincova is ranked No. 98. Shevchenko is also ranked No. 98.

And Martincova only squeezed in because she rose five spots in the rankings on the very day of the deadline, after making the final of a $80,000 ITF in Spain last week.

No. 100 is Magdalena Frech of Poland. And as of today, she’s out of luck. So is men’s No. 99 David Goffin, and women’s No. 99 Océane Dodin, for whom it’s the home Slam.

Now, Frech, Dodin and Goffin will probably end up getting in. If recent history is any indication there are a number of players who enter with their protected rankings only to decide, closer to the tournament, that they’re just not ready to return.

And so they don’t want to waste one of the two Grand Slams for which they’re allowed to use their protected. That’s been the case with Patricia Tig, whose protected ranking is No. 65.

But they have to wait. And hope players won’t try to give it a go to collect at least part of that first-round prize money.

Roland Garros Protected Rankings

The women’s list we saw was a few hours before the deadline. It contained … seven players with protected rankings.

#14 – Jennifer Brady
#21 – Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
#27 – Elina Svitolina
#54 – Daria Saville
#65 – Patricia Tig
#68 – Sara Sorribes Tormo
#90 – Kristina Kucova

Missing that cut (for now) are No. 103 Vera Zvonareva and No. 106 Hsieh Su-Wei.

The men’s list as of Tuesday morning … also had seven players with protected rankings:

#35 – Gaël Monfils
#47 – Lloyd Harris
#48 – Kyle Edmund
#73 – Hugo Dellien
#75 – Guido Pella
#88 – Jérémy Chardy
#94 – Jiri Vesely

Still on the outside looking in are David Goffin, Taro Daniel and No. 101, Dominic Thiem.

The lists weren’t dissimilar for January’s Australian Open, although there are some new faces, and some have used up their eligibility.

Those on the women’s side who have used up their two-Grand-Slam allowance are Nadia Podoroska (No. 39/No. 102), Evgeniya Rodina (No. 73/No. 327), Taylor Townsend (No. 84/No. 117), and Eugenie Bouchard (No. 118/No. 298).

Podoroska, at No. 102 this week, might well get in. And Sorribes Tormo, at No. 101 and just back a few weeks ago, might also not have to use her protected ranking to make it.

But for now, they’re on the outside looking in.

From the list we saw, Sofia Kenin (No. 4 protected, No. 134 actual) and Jaqueline Cristian (No. 65 protected, No. 180 actual) still have one Grand Slam they can enter with their protected rankings. But they only entered Roland Garros with their actual rankings.

Perhaps Kenin, a former singles finalist, might get a wild card.

Barbora Strycova, who is returning from maternity leave and plans to get the band back together in doubles with Hsieh, did not enter with her No. 39 protected singles ranking.

She has, however, entered both Madrid and Rome in singles with it.

MIAMI, Fla. – In a mere whisper of hint of a moment, an athlete’s life can completely turn.

From hope and inner peace and glowing happiness, to abject, heart-wrenching devastation.

The cries of agony from Bianca Andreescu bounced around the mostly empty seats of the Miami Open’s Grandstand Court Monday night, after one false step, an injury retirement and, in the short term, an uncertain future.

Those blood-curdling wails may still be echoing on that court hours after Andreescu was taken off in a wheelchair with a left ankle injury, the extent and seriousness of which remains unknown at this late hour.

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UPDATE: Open Court was hearing Tuesday night that the diagnosis is an ankle sprain, but hadn’t nailed down what grade of sprain it is – which of course is a big difference-maker.

On Wednesday evening, Andreescu herself confirmed that she had two torn ligaments and that rehab had already begun. She didn’t specify if it was a Grade 2 sprain (partially torn ligaments) or a Grade 3 (fully torn). Neither, generally speaking, means surgery).

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There was pain, of the kind Andreescu said on court she had never experienced in her life. There was the shock of the moment. There was the instant realization that once again, the fates had conspired against her and knocked her down, just as she was getting back up and soaring again.

That realization was summed up in two words that will echo through the hearts of the few who were on hand to witness it, the many more who were at home watching it live, and the many Canadians and sports fans who will wake up Tuesday morning and see it relived, again and again.

“Not again”.

For that has been the journey of the 22-year-old Canadian, who four years ago was on top of the tennis world with even more impressive exploits to come over that summer of 2019. Since then, it’s been one setback after another.

Until this week, when she was playing vintage Andreescu tennis, glowing with good health and good vibes, with no reason to think everything was only going to get better from here.

Until that whisper of a damnable moment, when it all went south again.

The moment was eerily similar to one just two years ago, not far away from the Grandstand on the Miami Open stadium court. Andreescu was forced to retire against Ashleigh Barty after a renaissance run to the Miami Open final.

She twisted her right foot, which was already taped before the match began.

A “freak accident”, she said at the time.

And now, almost two years to the day, another freak accident turns a glorious week into a heartbreaking one.

Devastating scenes

Opponent Ekaterina Alexandrova stood by, trying to offer what help she could. She went to chase down some ice, and stood by Andreescu as the medical team both looked at her ankle and tried to calm her. But the tears kept coming, along with the pain.

The small crowd yelled out words of encouragement. They applauded. They showed her all the love they could. You can hear it on the video above; it’s the only part of it that warms, rather than chills, the heart.

Andreescu’s father Nicu hovered behind the advertising boards at that end of the court, wanting to get on court and offer some fatherly love.

Mother Maria was in tears over on the other side of the court, where the family and Bianca’s team were sitting.

A wheelchair was brought out from the locker room located inside the Grandstand court.

Finally, with some help, Andreescu stood up. As she was about to lower herself down into the wheelchair she and Alexandrova embraced. It was a long hug; they held onto each other tightly as the Russian whispered what words of comfort she could conjure up into Andreescu’s ear.

The Russian looked pretty devastated herself. And that’s the thing about those whispers of moments; they remind all of the other athletes that they, too, are just that moment away from devastation.

When your occupation depends on a healthy body, and you spend most of your waking hours pushing that body to the limit, it’s the kind of thing that can happen to anyone. Even as young as most of these athletes are – an age when we all thought we were immortal – they’re aware of it.

But they push it to the back of their minds, until they’re reminded of the abject fragility of the house of cards they’ve spent a lifetime building.

A glorious, happy week for Andreescu – until …

There had been signs in 2023 that Andreescu was on her way to regaining the level that made her 2019 season such a landmark one. She was just 18 then; she will turn 23 in June.

It’s it’s taken all this time to get the body right, to get the mind right, to get the inner peace where she needs it to be.

And all week long, both on court and in her post-match interviews, it was clear that the work Andreescu has done on herself might finally be paying dividends.

Her tennis was near-vintage. She posted victories over 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, over No. 7 seed Maria Sakkari, and over 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.

She looked so happy; seriously, she was glowing. The winning will do that, but it felt like so much more than that.

Until that one split second when everything changed, late in the evening Monday after a long mid-match rain delay.

What’s next?

The first order of business will be to tend to the physical.

It’s impossible to know from the outside how much of the obvious agony was physical, how much was shock and how much was disbelief that once again, she’d fallen off the mountaintop again and faced a long climb back up.

Hopefully the ankle will turn out to not be as bad as it looked as it was happening; that would be the best-case scenario.

Andreescu went to the hospital for an MRI late Monday night; as of Tuesday afternoon, they were waiting for the doctor to meet them to discuss the results.

The second order of business is to make sure that all the positive steps, all the gloriousness of this week in Miami are not for naught.

That while Andreescu has been knocked down yet again, she now knows something she might not have fully believed until this week.

She still has the magic on the court. And, once she gets healthy again, there is still much left to accomplish.

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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – First 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu skipped her scheduled practice Tuesday with Anhelina Kalinina of Kazakhstan.

After that, she pulled out of the mixed-doubles exhibition scheduled for Tuesday night.

Understandably, that set people a-wonderin’ if she would make her date on Thursday, for the first round of the BNP Paribas Open.

Raducanu is scheduled to play Danka Kovinic on the big stadium court at about 1 p.m. local time, just before her countryman Andy Murray plays his first-round match in a British doubleheader that will begin about 9 p.m. over there.

Will she make it?

Stay tuned on Thursday

Well … Raducanu did make her scheduled practice Wednesday, with her coach.

But after the tonsillitis that forced her out of the WTA tournament in Austin, Texas last week, it appears the 20-year-old has a few other issues she’s dealing with.

Namely the left wrist. And also the right wrist.

Here’s what she looked like on the practice court.

Full out, but shaking it out

It appeared that Raducanu, more often than not, was hitting out on both her forehand and backhand.

But she was also shaking off her wrist after some hits. There were a few winces. And she was also letting the left hand go early, on some of the backhand hits.

The taping looks rather unusual. On the right wrist, it starts beyond the wristband and comes up almost all the way to the knuckles.

On the leftwrist it begins a little lower and ends a little higher on the hand.

Just another tough piece of luck

It defies belief how many issues have come between Raducanu and her quest to build on that improbable US Open, get better, get more experience and have her tennis career catch up to that result.

It can’t be that she’s not putting in the work. She certainly doesn’t look … delicate, in the sense that she physically can’t take the load.

But something is clearly going to have to change.

Her ranking has been hovering in the 70s and 80s since the points dropped off from that US Open title.

She has played just … five matches since last September. And she has a third-round result to defend from last year’s Indian Wells.

(Crazy as it seems, dropping those points won’t be catastrophic for her ranking, which would drop out of the top 80 from its current No. 77 if she loses her first-round match or doesn’t make the date at all. But not that far out of the top 80).

Raducanu was ranked No. 13 a year ago, seeded No. 11 at the tournament with a first-round bye. She lost in three sets to Petra Martic in the third round, after beating Caroline Garcia (then ranked No. 66) in her opener.

To begin the 2023 season, Raducanu withdrew before her second-round match in Auckland. And then, she lost in the second round at the Australian Open to Coco Gauff.

She hasn’t played since.

Hopefully she can make the date Thursday.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Even on paper, this one looked like a must-see.

Beijing’s Juncheng (Jerry) Shang, who just turned 18 last month, is one of those IMG-signed, academy-raised “can’t miss” prospects wearing the latest Nike.

He took on Shanghai’s Zhizhen Zhang, who is none of those things. It’s been a long slog and, at 26, Zhang finally broke into the top 100 last October.

The two met in the final round of qualifying at Indian Wells on Tuesday, with the prize being a spot in the draw of the main event, which gets under way Wednesday.

The match had … everything.

In the end, it was the older Zhang who prevailed – but not before saving two match points – in a 6-7 (10), 6-3, 7-6 (5) marathon that took a few moments over three hours to complete.

Here’s what it looked like.

An ankle issue for the younger Shang resulted in the doctor coming out and having a look, when he was up 5-4 in the third and Zhang was about to serve to stay in the match.

It wasn’t one of … “those” things, though. It was pretty clear Shang was hurting. It may have been one of those high ankle sprains that are impossible to do much about and take a long time to heal.

He would go as hard as he could (and this kid is FAST) during some of the points. But once he tried to slow down and stop, he would hobble and have to walk it off. His serve lost a fair bit of velocity, too.

But here’s the thing: this 18-year-old is a baller.

Match point moves

Shang knew he was kind of in big trouble. He had the perspective to at least be able to laugh at his bad fortune. But he also wasn’t going to go down without at least a battle.

So he just started to try to fire winners, any time he saw an opening. He also barely missed a ball for the last 45 minutes of the match.

On the first match point, he decided to suddenly move way back into Thiem/Medvedev territory on the second-serve return, to give Zhang a different look. You never know; this can actually be effective and a double-fault RIGHT at that juncture would have been quite a gift.

Unfortunately, Shang sort of outsmarted himself and the return didn’t really get to the net.

On the second match point, he tried the opposite tack and moved right in. He was always thinking. And he was playing as if he were spending house money.

It just wasn’t quite enough.

Finally luck is on Zhang’s side

The 26-year-old had pretty awful luck in the qualifying at the Australian Open, when he ran into young American Ben Shelton in the first round.

Zhang was actually at No. 96 then; but it happened just a little too late for his ranking to count to get into the main draw. And then he ran into Shelton, who turned Court 14 at Melbourne Park into the Swamp (the home of the NCAA’s Florida Gators, which was his team until he turned pro this summer).

Shelton won that one in the fifth-set match tiebreak. And went on to make a run to the quarterfinals. Zhang left, still winless at the ATP level on the season, and proceeded to lose in the first round of three more events.

(Shang did qualify at the Australian Open, taking care of veteran Fernando Verdasco on the same late night Shelton beat Zhang. And he won a round, too).

So this is a nice reset for Zhang, who was joined in the top 100 by countryman Wu Yibing a few weeks ago (Wu has a wild card into the main draw).

You just know Shang, who is near his career high ranking at the moment, at No. 171, wlll be joining them sooner rather than later.

When he got a wild card into the qualifying at Indian Wells a year ago, just turned 17, Shang qualified on a retirement in the final round, after beating Francisco Cerundolo in the first round (Cerundolo, who was No. 100 then but was in the top 25 by summer), had no idea what happened to him. This year, he was in on his own.

For Zhang, it will be only the second career main-draw match at a Masters 1000 level.

He’s from Shanghai. But he never received a wild card into anything other than the qualifying until 2019 (the last time it was held), when he had broken into the top 200. And then he got Hubert Hurkacz in the first round that year.

Zhang has never even competed in any Masters 1000 other than his “home” tournament.

So this will be new. He meets lucky loser Alexei Popyrin in the first round; the Aussie got in when Michael Mmoh withdrew.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Three late withdrawals from the women’s singles draw mean three opportunities for lucky losers from this week’s qualifying.

But It’s a big shame for the three who won’t be able to take part in the first Grand Slam of 2023.

The first is Ajla Tomljanovic, who is a converted Australian, and the highest-ranked Aussie women in the tournament. In fact, she’s the only female Aussie ranked in the top 150.

Already, she had withdrawn from the United Cup, leaving that squad pretty decimated after Nick Kyrgios also withdrew.

Now she’s out of Melbourne as well.

Tomljanovic is prominently featured in out of the early episodes of the just-released Netflix “tennis reality” series.

And she is features in the latest issue of “In Style” Magazine. Certainly the additional exposure would only be heightened by the attention she’d receive making a run at her “home” Slam. So it has to be devastating.

She was pretty emotional in a press conference discussing it Saturday. It’s a knee problem, that came up in December and has evaded most conservative treatments so far.

“There was no time left. If I’m not ready to compete against the best, coming into an event like this, my goal is to make the second week, not just participate. I’m just not close to being at that capacity. It’s tough because I do feel like it was improving a lot, but just not… Yeah, ran out of time,” she said.

“If I’m taking a 15-second pity party, this shouldn’t have happened now. It’s the time when I’m feeling my best self in every way, coming into a Slam truly feeling like I deserve to be even a contender. I mean, I feel that way. I’m not coming out here and faking that,” she added.

The second pullout is Paula Badosa, who withdrew from her semifinal match Friday in Adelaide and now is out of the big show.

Official reason: abductor injury suffered during her Adelaide quarterfinal.

Badosa is another who is prominently featured in the “Break Point” series, talking openly about the mental-health challenges that come with the job.

She, too is out at a time when the spotlight would have increasingly been on her.

That’s so tennis, isn’t it? A big project is out to get more people outside the tennis bubble engaged – and two of the “stars” have had untimely injuries and have had to pull out.

(Not to diminish what tough luck it is for the players themselves).

If it weren’t for bad luck …

The lucky losers are France’s Léolia Jeanjean, who will play Nadia Podoroska and Laura Pigossi of Brazil, who replaces Badosa and will play American Caty McNally.

Kudermetova commutes Adelaide —> Melbourne

Meanwhile, Veronika Kudermetova, who is the No. 9 seed at the Australian Open and is set to play Maryna Zanevka in the first round, was back on court in Melbourne Saturday.

Kudermetova, who played a lot of tennis in Adelaide the last two weeks, was unable to answer the bell for her semifinal match against countrywoman Daria Kasatkina Friday night over there. Official reason: left hip.

At lunchtime Saturday, she was on court in Melbourne.

It wasn’t as hot as it was in Adelaide. But it was hot.

And there’s no doubt Kudermetova looked a little ragged. At one point, her trainer basically patted her back consolingly when she sat down for a water break.