PARIS (AP) — French veterans Alizé Cornet and Richard Gasquet received wild-card invitations Tuesday to play in the French Open.
They were among the eight men’s and eight women’s wild cards given by the French Tennis Federation for the clay-court Grand Slam tournament starting May 26.
The 34-year-old Cornet recently said she would be retiring after playing one last time at Roland Garros. This will be Cornet’s 20th consecutive appearance at the French Open, where she made her Grand Slam debut in 2005. She twice has reached the fourth round there.
The only time she fared better at any major tournament was a quarterfinal run at the Australian Open in 2022.
Cornet’s career-best ranking was No. 11. She is currently No. 99.
Gasquet is 37 and currently ranked No. 113; his best was No. 7 in 2007.
His deepest run at the French Open was reaching the quarterfinals in 2016, but he has not passed the third round at Roland Garros since. At other majors, he made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon twice and the U.S. Open once.
American Sachia Vickery and Australian Ajla Tomljanović were among the the women’s entries and Australian Adam Walton was among the men. Their wild cards were given as part of an agreement with the United States Tennis Association and Tennis Australia.
The USTA, Tennis Australia and the FFT offer reciprocal wild-card invitations for each other’s Grand Slam events. ___
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