Wildcards devoured in ATP jungle

By Jonathan Overend BBC Five Live tennis correspondent

Unranked British tennis players are so desperate to break into the professional game they are acquiring wildcards into challenger events where they are hopelessly out of their depth.

Robert Dee and Paul Brighten - both of whom were unranked and unknown to most British tennis officials - cropped up in the second division of world tennis two weeks ago followed this week by Adam Lownsbrough, ranked 1,472 in the world.

These events usually contain players ranked between 100 and 250, but wildcard places are allocated by the tournament directors.

The three British invitations won just a single game between them.

American-based Robert Dee was given a wildcard into the Mexico City tournament and lost 6-0 6-1 to a Mexican coach.

Brighten (nobody I've contacted in British tennis has ever heard of him) then accepted a wildcard into the Ostrava challenger in the Czech Republic and lost 6-0 6-0 to established pro Jan Vacek.

There is nothing improper about these cases because wildcard invitations are purely at the discretion of the individual tournaments

Lownsbrough was a surprise entry in the San Remo challenger in Italy, a reasonably important fixture on the clay-court swing, and lost 6-0 6-0 to top 150 player Olivier Patience.

There is nothing improper about these cases, as the rules stand, because wildcard invitations are purely at the discretion of the individual tournaments and the players invited are perfectly entitled to accept.

The players argue they are getting a legitimate leg-up onto the tennis ladder.

A first-round defeat in challengers provides one ranking point.

That single point gives a tennis player an ATP world ranking and enables them to get entry into futures tournaments - albeit qualifying tournaments - ahead of players who simply have a national rating. It is a crucial stepping stone.

But two of these Brits didn't even have a world ranking when they played (and the world rankings go down to 1,472) making them little more than ambitious club players.

Challenger level - often a world-class standard - is no place for the unranked, untried and unknown.

It's embarrassing for the individuals and degrading the tournaments

It would be totally different if they were good enough to compete in matches but, at the moment, there is little evidence to suggest this is the case - they can't even win sets let alone matches.

It's embarrassing for the individuals and degrading the tournaments.

A player such as Vacek or Patience has effectively got a bye through the first round. Isn't that unfair to a player who doesn't draw the unranked wildcard?

A further indication of how out of their depth these players are came from Jaroslav Levinsky, the Czech Republic doubles player.

He partnered Michael Tabara to a 6-0 6-1 victory over British wildcards Brighten and Matthew Allen in Ostrava.

Levinsky said Brighten double-faulted four times in his opening service game. He added that he'd never played a worse pair.

This loophole can't be good for the game and the ATP, acting on the information which resulted from a joint-investigation by the BBC and the Times, are keen to investigate.