Question: What do you do when you lack the experience or the talent to gain entry to professional tournaments?
Answer: Ask your Dad to buy you a ticket..!

No, not to sit on the sidelines to watch but actually play in the tournament.

How is this possible?
Through the unfair and abusive system known as the wildcard.
This is designed to allow the operator of a tournament some say in who should play in his tournament.
It is after all his tournament it is argued by the system's supporters.
It is designed to provide opportunities for upcoming, local or deserving players to play in the tournament.

Let's see how it actually worked in one particular case:

Player A had set his heart on a career as a professional tennis player.
His talent and experience (or the lack thereof) were, however, proving to be a serious obstacle to his dream of playing in pro tournaments.
Fortunately, Dad had earned a few shekels as a result of some wise business investments and was able to come up with the $40,000 or so that would provide the financial backing necessary for an aspiring tennis promoter to persuade the USTA to allow him to run one of the events that are part of the USTA's Pro Circuit.

The USTA relies on the sponsorship of mainly local businesses to provide its "Futures' and 'Challengers' pro circuit events with the prize money and other funding necessary to run these events - including pay for USTA officials, hospitality, publicity, facilities, court rental, stands, etc. etc. About 90 of these events are held across the USTA each year as well as others overseas.

Players earn ranking points in relation to their advancement though rounds of a pro circuit event. Without such events, aspiring pro players have no opportunity of earning the ranking points that are needed to progress to the next - and premier - level of professional tournaments - the ATP and WTA tours.

Pro circuit events come in two flavors - the "Futures' event - typically offering $10,00 or $15,000 in total prize money (with the winner receiving around $,1500) and the "Challenger" - regarded as an event for experienced and higher-level professional players - with total prize money of at least $25,000 (and sometimes as high as $75,000) being offered.

In Futures events, ranking points are earned by any player reaching the round of 16
For Challenger events, however, designed for players who are ready for the top level ATP and WTA tournaments, ranking points are much higher and a player losing in the first round will earn one ranking point.

And it is at this point that we return to our story...

Daddy, as the provider of the funds that will make the tournament a reality, chooses to sponsor a $25,000 Challenger - rather than a $10,000 Futures event.- and gets to award one of 'his' wildcards to his son. His son's best friend also gets a wildcard

The son and his friend, being hopelessly outclassed by their opponents, are beaten 6-1 6-0 and 6-0 6-1.

Are they disappointed and embarrassed?
Absolutely not - they are overjoyed....!
Their first round loss at the Challenger level has 'earned' them one ranking point
which is enough to almost guarantee them entry into every Futures tournament in the World for the next year.

Is this an abuse of the system?
Of course not!
It is using the system for the exact purpose for which it was designed:
to give the tournament operator an "Advance to 'Go' card to give to anyone at his sole discretion.
Whether that person is qualified to play at that level or not is totally irrelevant.

Is this a fair system?
Certainly not if you are one of the thousands of young men and women who have worked and trained hard for years to 'earn' their ranking points and who would have earned entry into the Challenger event if those 2 places in the limited 32-place main draw hadn't been reserved for unranked and undeserving wildcard recipients.

And not if you are one of tens of thousands of young hopefuls trying to earn their first ranking point by traveling the country - and the World - playing round after round of Futures qualifying events - and trying to earn your first ranking point.

All Futures events in the USA are so inundated with hopeful professional players that qualifying rounds are invariably played to select the top 8 players to be given the opportunity of playing in the main draw. The maximum 128 places in the qualifying draw are often filled as soon as entries are opened and hopefuls who have traveled significant distances at significant cost are frequently turned away once the 128 places are filled.

In such Futures events, players have to win at least 5 rounds against determined opponents to earn their one ranking point
(four qualifying rounds plus at least one round of the main draw).

How do they feel seeing a place in the main draw reserved for someone who has never won a professional tennis match in his life but whose single ranking point demonstrates their superiority and guarantees their place in the tournament...?

These are the people who will tell you if it is a fair system or not...