Falconi Punches Ticket to Aussie Open With Wild Card Win
Irina Falconi will make her fourth appearance in the main draw of the Australian Open after clinching the USTA Pro Circuit Australian Open Wild Card Challenge this past weekend. Falconi clinched the wild card when Jennifer Brady, the only player who could surpass her in the standings, lost in semifinals of the $50,000 event in Captiva Island, Fla. Falconi earned 109 points in the wild card challenge by winning the $50,000 event in New Braunfels, Texas, and by reaching the semifinals of the $50,000 event in Macon, Ga.
In the USTA Pro Circuit Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, USTA Player Development awards a 2015 Australian Open wild card to the American man and American woman who earn the most ATP World Tour and WTA ranking points at two of the three select USTA Pro Circuit hard-court events this fall. The USTA and Tennis Australia have a reciprocal agreement in which wild cards into the 2014 US Open and 2015 Australian Open are exchanged. The 2015 Australian Open main draw will be held Monday, Jan. 19-Sunday, Feb. 1.
As of this week, Falconi is ranked 114th in the world, which is approaching the cutoff for direct entry into the 2015 Australian Open’s main draw. The Australian Open entry list will be released Monday, Dec. 8, and could affect Falconi’s player eligibility for the wild card challenge; the challenge is only open to Americans who do not earn direct entry into the Australian Open. If Falconi does indeed receive direct entry, Jennifer Brady would then earn the wild card after finishing in second place in the USTA Pro Circuit Australian Open Wild Card Challenge.
Falconi has played in every Grand Slam event at least twice, competing in the Australian Open in 2011, 2012 and 2014, when she reached the second round. At the 2011 U.S. Open, Falconi upset Dominika Cibulkova in the second round at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Earlier that year, Falconi won the USTA’s playoff to earn a wild card into the French Open, where she advanced to the second round, and she also qualified for the Australian Open and Wimbledon to peak at number 73 in the world. In addition, she was selected to represent the U.S. in the 2011 Pan Am Games, where she won the Gold Medal in singles and the Silver Medal in doubles (with Christina McHale). In all, Falconi has won four USTA Pro Circuit singles titles and two doubles titles. In two seasons at Georgia Tech, she was a two-time All-American and ranks first in school history in all-time winning percentage (.824; 70-15).
The USTA Pro Circuit Australian Open Wild Card Challenge concludes this week for the men with the $50,000 JSM Challenger of Champaign-Urbana in Champaign, Ill. In the men’s standings, Denis Kudla leads with 44 points after Week Two. Kudla reached the semifinals of the $50,000 Challenger in Charlottesville, Va., two weeks ago, and the quarterfinals of the $50,000 Challenger in Knoxville, Tenn., last week.
This format replaces the USTA Australian Open Wild Card Playoffs, an elimination tournament that had been held since 2006 for the women and 2007 for the men. Each of the last five years the tournament featured an eight-player, single-elimination playoff held at Life Time Athletic at Peachtree Corners in Norcross, Ga., to determine the Australian Open wild cards.
The standings, as of Nov. 10, are as follows:
