Wimbledon selectors in surprise wildcard snub of recent French Open semi finalist Lois Boisson

Wimbledon has officially announced its wildcard selections for the upcoming tournament, with one notable omission—French Open semi-finalist, Lois Boisson.

After a stunning run in Paris that saw her break into the WTA top 70 and reach the semi-finals—where she eventually lost to Coco Gauff in straight sets—many expected Boisson’s breakout performance to earn her a main draw wildcard at SW19. However, in a surprising decision, the young French tennis star has not been granted direct entry and will now need to battle through the qualifying rounds to secure her place in the Wimbledon main draw.

Being able to enter Wimbledon qualifying was hard enough after she had to use her injury-protected ranking, thanks to an ACL injury that kept Boisson out for eight months. But despite this, many thought that the All England Club would acknowledge her monumental achievement at Roland Garros and allow her to compete in the main draw from the start.

However, Boisson was a notable rejection from the list of wildcard entrants that was released on Wednesday, and this has got people thinking over the legitimacy of the selection criteria. Out of the eight spots available, there was only one non-British player who received a wildcard—and that was two-time former champion Petra Kvitova, who had returned to the tour earlier this year following the arrival of her first child.

Other names that have been given a spot in the main draw include Jodie Burrage, Harriet Dart, Francesca Jones, Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic, Heather Watson, and Mingge Xu. Whilst the dream of playing at Wimbledon—and potentially going all the way—isn’t over just yet, there is a tough road ahead for Boisson as she looks to make her way into the main draw.

There are some recognisable names within the wildcard selections, most notably Hannah Klugman, who is currently the junior world No. 3 in the ITF rankings and recently finished runner-up at the junior French Open earlier this month. This will be her debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam. She received a qualifying wildcard for Wimbledon last year but lost in the third and final round.

Despite the fact that Lois Boisson must enter the qualifying rounds, there is still an expectation that the new world No. 67 will make waves at SW19 and once again defeat higher-ranked players on her way to another impressive Grand Slam performance.

On the men's side of things there was also a heavy British selection for the wildcard selections, including the likes of Jay Clarke, Oliver Crawford, Dan Evans, George Loffhagen, Johannus Monday, Jack Pinnington Jones and Henry Searle. One more spot is available for the main draw and that is set to be announced in due course.