Jack Sock Headlines US Open Wild Card Recipients

The USTA announced on Tuesday its wild cards for the US Open, led by Jack Sock, a 2017 Nitto ATP Finals singles qualifier and 2018 doubles champion at The O2.

Sock missed more than six months of this season after tearing two ligaments in his thumb during a practice at the Australian Open. The American, who climbed as high as No. 8 in the ATP Rankings in November 2017, told ATPTour.com in July that the injury, “was potentially the biggest blessing in disguise for my careeer”.

The 2017 Rolex Paris Masters singles champion lost in the first round of the BB&T Atlanta Open and the Citi Open, and he also lost in qualifying at this week’s Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

Zachary Svajda, a 16-year-old, will make his tour-level debut in Flushing Meadows after earning his wild card by winning the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championship, a tournament that has been won by the likes of Stan Smith, Michael Chang and more recently, Frances Tiafoe. Svajda is currently No. 1,419 in the ATP Rankings.

The other wild cards are Denis Kudla, Bjorn Fratangelo, Marcos Giron, Ernesto Escobedo and Frenchman Antoine Hoang. Kudla is the next player outside of the main draw cut for the year’s final Grand Slam. If anyone currently inside the cut withdraws before the draw, the USTA will be able to reallocate Kudla’s wild card.

Kudla’s most notable performance of the season came at the MercedesCup, where he upset Frenchman Gael Monfils en route to the quarter-finals. In 2015, Kudla made the fourth round of Wimbledon.

Hoang received the French Federation’s reciprocal wild card. He is ranked No. 101 and advanced to the third round at Roland Garros this year with wins over Damir Dzumhur and Fernando Verdasco.

The USTA also announced the nine men who have been awarded wild card entries into the US Open Qualifying Tournament: JC Aragone, Jenson Brooksby, Maxime Cressy, Sebastian Korda, Stefan Kozlov, Govind Nanda, Sam Riffice, Alex Rybakov and J.J. Wolf.