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BBC News
04-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Seven days and four room keys - the lucky loser in the last 16
A week ago, Solana Sierra was out of Wimbledon. Since then, she has picked up her fourth different room key as she keeps up her historic progress at the grass-court Grand 21-year-old Argentine has become the first 'lucky loser' in the Open Era to reach the women's singles fourth round at the All England losers are players who lost in qualifying but end up in the main draw if others only got 15 minutes' notice before her first-round match that she would be playing, following an injury to Belgium's Greet Sierra has grasped her opportunity with both hands, beating Cristina Bucsa 7-5 1-6 6-1 in the third round on Friday."I remember I was really sad that day [I lost in qualifying], and today is like the best day of my life," she told BBC Sport."So it's been really crazy. Seven days ago, I was out of the tournament, right now I'm into the second week. So it's really crazy, and I'm just super happy."She is the first Argentinian woman since Paola Suarez in 2004 to reach the last 16 at getting to that stage, Sierra will take home a minimum of £240,000 in prize money, adding considerably to her £330,000 career earnings until this point."[I feel] super lucky," said the world number 101, who beat Britain's Katie Boulter in the second round. "But I think I also take the opportunity, and I really want to keep going and to keep dreaming in this tournament."Sierra has extended her latest accommodation booking until Tuesday, which means if she beats Germany's Laura Siegemund on Sunday, she will still have somewhere to stay until the quarter-finals. While Sierra is the first woman to achieve the feat, there have been five lucky losers to reach the men's singles fourth round, most recently Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in there is a lucky loser impressing in the men's singles this year too. The 2021 Wimbledon quarter-finalist Marton Fucsovics beat Gael Monfils over five sets, and across two days, to reach the third round. The Hungarian, who said he had gone from "hell to heaven" since losing in qualifying, will play the American 10th seed Ben Shelton on Saturday.
The Sun
02-07-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Wimbledon 2025 LIVE RESULTS: Emma Raducanu vs Marketa Vondrousova on NOW, Alcaraz beats Tarvet, Fritz also in action
Boulter 3-5 Sierra Katie Boulter makes an underwhelming start against lucky loser Solana Sierra out here at a half-empty No1 Court. The Brit - watched on by fiance Alex De Minaur - breaks in the first game of the match but then is broken straight back after laying two double faults. Another double-fault at 3-2 sees her broken again, putting her Argentine opponent in charge. Rising star Sierra is only in the main draw because she was randomly selected to fill in for an injured player, having lost in qualifying. But she is more than holding her own against her Leicester-born opponent, who is doing little to get the fans who are watching on from the stands off their seats.
Times
30-06-2025
- Sport
- Times
Lucky losers hit Wimbledon's £99,000 jackpot after late call-ups
It is not all about the winners at Wimbledon. The star names will duly cement reputations and frame victories in a historic gilt, but down among the near-unknowns the lucky losers play out broad-screen supporting dramas. For Solana Sierra, an Argentinian fighting her way up sport's slippery rungs, the £99,000 she guaranteed herself via the win of her life was nice, but the thrill, emotion and hug-with-mum were worth more. The tennis lucky loser is a curious concept that provides a new raft of challenges for any player. Four days earlier Sierra squandered a match point in the final round of Wimbledon qualifying at Roehampton and so did not know if she would be required this week. She could have played elsewhere for guaranteed money but instead rolled the dice and found a new apartment. On Monday morning a group of players who lost in that final round at Roehampton turned up to sign in half an hour before the start of play. A random draw of the highest-ranked players, rather than a simple order by rank, determined who would be first in if somebody withdrew. That has been the system for 20 years since Justin Gimelstob retired after one game of final qualifying, knowing his ranking would get him into Wimbledon. Don't stray too far, though, because men have to be available within five minutes of receiving the call; women get an extra ten minutes. First in over the weekend was Dusan Lajovic, the world No118, who replaced the creaking Pole Hubert Hurkacz, only to bow out quickly to Billy Harris, a Manxman who spent three years cutting costs by travelling around Europe in a Transit van. The perspective is clearly different down here but hopes remain high. Sierra, 21, is a rising star, the world No101, a student at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca and runner-up at the junior French Open in 2022. As it happens, she lost at Roland Garros a year earlier to Robin Montgomery, who was another lucky loser here. So what do you do knowing you may have to hang around all day, even into Tuesday, waiting, hoping, half-wishing ill on others? Sierra said she arrived at 9.30am, signed in and then went to practise. 'We thought it was best to train and not to watch matches or spend too much time sitting,' she said. 'I trained with Victoria Mboko [a lucky loser from Canada] and we were encouraging each other, telling each other that we'd get in. Then at 12pm I got a call and I was really happy, but it's not a nice feeling because someone has had to withdraw.' Professional sportspeople are often slaves to routine and detail, so the idea of getting a call at any time to play an opponent you have not considered is difficult. For Sierra, the opponent was Olivia Gadecki, a Queenslander who made the third round of the Australian Open this year. 'I played her last year in Roland Garros [qualifying] so I knew her game a little bit.' Watched by her mother, Marta, who has been staying with her since she joined the Nadal Academy in March, Sierra started well. She had three match points in the second set before Gadecki responded and took it to a tie-break. And that might have pricked at nerves because she also had a match point to win her final qualifying match and avoid all the angst of waiting. 'I was frustrated and angry when I lost those points,' she said. 'I was emotional at the end because it's the biggest day I've had but also because I was so close in qualis. I love to sleep but I couldn't on Thursday. I was a bit depressed. We've had to change apartment three times. I just wanted one more chance.' Still, she made it, winning 6-2, 7-6. In the women's game lucky losers have made the round of 16 of every women's grand-slam tournament other than Wimbledon. It is a rarity, though, and Eva Lys's feats at this year's Australian Open made her only the second in three decades. 'An insane story,' was how she described taking the call on a physio's table and rebooking her flight. For what it's worth, she made a third of her career earnings that week. However, in terms of 'insane' stories, the tale of Stefan Kozlov takes some beating. Having failed to qualify for the 2022 Mexican Open, the Macedonian-born American went jet-skiing, crashed and spent a nervous half-hour marooned on rocks before being rescued. He then went to hit balls with Nadal, only to get a message telling him to get to the stadium because Maxime Cressy had withdrawn. With his kit in the laundry, he borrowed clothes, dashed to the venue and, despite chronic cramping, beat Grigor Dimitrov in a marathon. His reward was a thrashing from Nadal. Sierra was not the only loser to win on opening day. Chile's Cristian Garín did likewise. He made the last eight in 2022 but was embroiled in controversy at the Davis Cup in February. On that occasion an exuberant Belgian celebration prompted Garín to crash to the floor after receiving a shoulder to the face. He refused to play on and ultimately defaulted the match-winning game. From sore loser to fortunate winner, the rollercoaster of emotions was rattling bolts and bones in the shadow of the show courts on day one. Like the song says, even the losers get lucky sometimes, but as Marta, the mother of Sierra, added: 'It's very stressful.'
