Last month, the decision to offer Venus Williams a wildcard at this year’s Indian Wells event sparked controversy amongst the tennis world.
Williams, now aged 44, has scarcely played on the WTA Tour in recent years, with her last competitive outing now a full year ago at the 2024 Miami Open.
The seven-time singles Grand Slam champion has endured serious injury challenges throughout that period, struggling to string together a decent run of competitive events.
Having only won three matches since Wimbledon in 2021, offering Williams a wildcard to one of the premier events in 2025 was perceived by many as undermining the integrity of the wildcard system.
For others, the Williams wildcard offer was the system operating precisely as intended. Ultimately, the American declined the wildcard offer to compete at Indian Wells, prompting an abrupt end to the discussion.
However, whether concerning Williams or another player, the debate over how wildcards are used will undoubtedly rear its head again soon enough.
The use of wildcards
Wildcards in tennis provide tournament organisers with the discretion to award spots in the main draw or qualifying draw to a player, usually for those whose ranking would not enable them to enter the main draw automatically.
Many famous tennis stories owe their existence to the wildcard system, such as Goran Ivanišević’s 2001 Wimbledon triumph, Kim Clijsters’ win at the 2009 US Open, and more recently the doubles success of Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis at the 2022 Australian Open.
At their best, wildcards give tennis an edge over most other sports, with a chance to bypass the usual qualification requirements to give a promising player, returning legend or injury-riddled athlete the chance to cause a stir to the established order of players.
Yet the wildcard system is hardly the exclusive domain of tennis’ romantic administrators, as
business plays a major role too.
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Local players hoover up a significant portion of wildcards at any tournament throughout the year, as organisers seek to maximise engagement and crowds throughout each event.
Further, the reciprocal arrangement between the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open, whereby each tournament promises wildcards to players from the other tournaments’ country each year, is clearly an exercise in self-interest.
Evidently, the business of wildcards is not purely a matter of sporting merit, but nor is it an absolute farce whereby only local players could dream of being a recipient.
Rather, it is precisely what one might expect from a system designed to be discretionary: an inconsistent and unpredictable game often decided at the whim of a tournament director, or at least with limited transparency as to how decisions are made.
Venus Williams’ wildcard
Where then does Venus Williams’ wildcard offer fit into this discussion?
The Age’s Marc McGowan did not hold back in his criticism.
"This is an indictment on a women’s tour lacking in star power and desperate for more eyeballs," McGowan wrote last month.
"Tennis needs to move on and find a new way to convince fans to buy tickets than rolling out a 44-year-old gimmick."
Jon Wertheim wrote about the topic for Sports Illustrated in 2023, (ironically) also in the aftermath of the decision to award Williams a wildcard which some perceived as undeserved and unhelpful to the sport.
"Wildcards are deeply problematic and fundamentally unfair," Wertheim wrote. "They are subjective in a sport that prides itself on objectivity.
"We’ve seen IMG give wildcards to Russian teens simply because they are clients…we’ve seen players’ otherwise undeserving siblings get wildcards… we’ve seen stars demand wildcards for friends…it’s all gross.
"Given the canvas here, conferring automatic entry to a seven-time major winner seems like a minor grievance."
Wertheim’s response was written over 18 months ago, but the key points remain as salient as ever.
Tennis, like many other sports, prides itself on its apparent meritocracy, and, for the most part, such a claim is accurate.
Anyone on either Tour, playing well enough, can win games, matches and events, climb the rankings, and achieve financial and sporting success as a result.
But to deny the extent to which established stars, or those with famous surnames, or even those who happen to be born in a country with greater financial and publicity resources, extract consistent benefits because of their status would be a wilful blindness to reality.
The awarding of wildcards benefits certain players in much the same way as match scheduling, seedings in draws, opportunities to play lucrative exhibitions, or even WADA determinations invariably produce more favourable outcomes for certain players. Some of those benefits are earned through success on the courts, some less so.
Regardless, offering Williams a wildcard is not so much an abomination in an otherwise fair and equal system, but rather in perfect alignment with the status quo.
Such unevenness is not necessarily a bad thing for tennis, either.
Williams is a legend of the sport, who, had she played, would have either lost in the first-round in front of a larger crowd and with more publicity than almost anyone else in the draw or would have won and generated a narrative of much excitement and nostalgia for most fans.
Establishing and promoting superstars who transcend the sport is a key task of tennis administrators which facilitates the wider growth of the sport. Such a task is made much easier through opportunities to platform the biggest names at the biggest events.
Each of these points is not intended to deny the flaws of the wildcard system. Regulating bodies could readily implement stricter criteria and oversight for how wildcards are awarded, which would surely lead to a fairer distribution of opportunities to lesser-known players.
The Williams wildcard decision, however, is more of an exception than the rule. A true legend, especially one dogged by injuries in recent years, would almost always be a worthy wildcard recipient.
The argument that a talented younger player would make better use of a spot in the draw does not go far when considering the overwhelming probability that such a player would lose early in the tournament when coming up against an established star.
Further, neither the WTA nor ATP is lacking for tournaments at present, meaning any sufficiently promising player will have ample opportunity to earn their big break across the course of a season.
Tennis could and should offer a more even playing field.
That being said, many stronger criticisms could be made of wildcards, as well as the unevenness of the system generally, than whether Venus Williams gets to play in 2025.
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