Odesnik Captures U.S. Open Wild Card After Five-Year Absence
Twenty-eight-year-old Wayne Odesnik, a former top 100 player from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will return to the U.S. Open main draw for the first time since 2009 after earning a wild card on Saturday by winning the 2014 USTA Pro Circuit U.S. Open Wild Card Challenge.
Odesnik clinched the wild card when Rhyne Williams, the only player who could have surpassed Odesnik in the standings, lost his semifinal match at the Comerica Bank Challenger, a $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Aptos, Calif. Odesnik finished the wild card challenge with 77 points after reaching the final of the $50,000 Challenger in Binghamton, N.Y., and the semifinals of the $50,000 Challenger in Lexington, Ky., in back-to-back weeks.
The USTA awards a U.S. Open main draw wild card to an American man and an American woman who do not have direct entry into the main draw by utilizing a series of USTA Pro Circuit events this summer. Ranking points from two out of the three women’s events and two out of the four men’s are used and combined to calculate the point total and determine the U.S. Open wild card recipient. If a player competes in more than two events, only his or her two best tournaments are counted in calculating the point total.
Nicole Gibbs, a two-time NCAA singles champion for Stanford, clinched the women’s U.S. Open wild card and will be making her third U.S. Open main draw appearance.
The final standings, through Aug. 9, are as follows:
