Bjorn Fratangelo will make his senior debut at this year’s French Open after winning the USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge.
The yearly challenge awards a wild card for the French Open to the player who has earned the highest amount of points within a set amount of American tournaments. This year there are three men’s challenger tournaments dishing out the points in Sarasota, Savannah and Tallahassee.
Despite losing in the first round of the Tallahassee tournament this week, Fratangelo has already generated enough points to secure his place after his closest rival, Jared Donaldson, also lost in the first round. The 22-year-old already reached the semifinals in Sarasota and won his second Challenger title in Savannah. The duo of impressive results gives the 22-year-old 115 points (67 more than second place Jared Donaldson).
“It’s a reward for the good two weeks I had and for the work I put in on and off the court,” Fratangelo said after hearing the news he received the wild card.
“I’m looking forward to getting there, to a place where I have a lot of good memories. It’s a reward and hopefully I can make good use of it.”
Roland Garros is a special venue for Fratangelo, who first shot to the media limelight after winning the 2011 French Open Boys’ title. In the final he defeated Dominic Thiem in a three set epic, winning the final set 8-6.
Entering in only the third Grand Slam main draw of his pro career, Fratangelo will take with him a fresh burst of confidence. Last month at the BNP Paribas Open he reached the second round as a qualifier and unexpectedly took a set off Novak Djokovic before losing the match in three sets.
“It was probably the highlight of my year so far,” Fratangelo said about his performance against the world No.1.
“It was a great experience that I’ll never forget.”
The American has also defeated three top-100 players on the tour this year (Marcel Granollers, Denis Kudla and Teymuraz Gabashvili).
Frantangelo is currently ranked 117th in the world, 11 places below his 2015 career best of 109th. He is yet to win a main draw match at a Grand Slam tournament.
