On Sunday morning at the French Open Egypt’s Mohamed Safwat was given his first opportunity to play in the main draw of a grand slam at the age of 27.
Safrat, who was the first player from his country to feature in the main draw at Roland Garros since 1996, bowed out in three sets to Grigor Dimitrov. He was given the chance to take on the fourth seed thanks to the lucky loser rule. Viktor Troicki, Dimitrov’s original opponent, withdrew prior to the start of the match due to injury. Making Safwat the seventh lucky loser to enter this year’s draw.
The surge in lucky losers is in some way a welcome situation. Last year at Wimbledon, there were concerns raised about some players playing deliberately in the main draw despite being injured. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played of their first round matches on Centre court on the same day, but both of their opponent retired injured. To some it is a coincidence, but in reality few players are going to risk missing out on big money by playing in the first round of a major. Especially those ranked outside of the top 100.
“If a guy is all his life is playing Challengers and suddenly has a chance to play Wimbledon main draw, where the first-round loss is £35,000, I don’t think anybody has the right to judge him, to say ‘you didn’t do the right thing, you’re unfair for going there and picking up a cheque’, because that same guy, probably next week, if he drops, he needs to pay a coach and all the other expenses to go to a Challenger where if he wins he gets €150 or €300.” Former world No.8 Janko Tipsarevic told Sport 360 last year.
Amid the speculation, came the calls to change the system. Federer urged the majors to ‘adjust their rules’ to follow a similar approach to that of the ATP. Those calls were addressed last year by the Grand Slam Board. From 2018, players who withdraw prior to the start of their opening match in grand slams will receive 50% of the first-round losers money. Meanwhile, the lucky loser will receive the other half. This time last year, players would receive nothing if they withdrew from their first round match.
Although it is hard to measure how effective the new rule change is, the stats speak for themselves. The new system now sees at least 14 players benefitting under the new rules in the men’s draw alone. In the women’s tournament, there are currently only two lucky losers.
The number of lucky losers at Roland Garros might just be a coincidence, but you have to wonder if it would be the same amount if the rules wasn’t changed.
List of lucky losers (as at 27/5/2018)
Men
Simone Bolelli ITA
Ruben Bemelmans BEL
Jurgen Zopp EST
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR
Peter Polansky CAN
Mohamad Safwat EYG
Oscar Otte GER
Women
Arantxa Rus NED
Dalila Jakupovic SRB
