A week before the start of the big tournament, qualifying opens on Monday.

For a week, 128 players and as many players, ranked between 100th and 226th in the world, compete for a handful of places in the main draw.

Europe 1 summarizes everything you need to know.

DECRYPTION

Every year, Roland-Garros delivers its share of beautiful stories of players "from the qualifications".

In 2020, Argentina's Nadia Podoroska, 131st in the world, even reached the "real" semi-final of the Porte d'Auteuil tournament after having taken this preliminary step.

The Belgian Philippe Dewulf had achieved such a feat in 1997 in the men's table.

While the 2021 edition of what is sometimes called the "qualifiers" opens this Monday, a week before the first matches of the main draw, Europe 1 gives you the instructions for use.  

Who participates ?

For men, 128 players are vying for 16 places for the main draw.

These are tennis players located between 100th and 226th place in the ATP ranking, which defines the world hierarchy of the discipline. 

Due to the Covid and the difficulties faced by the players with the pandemic, they will also be 128 this year on the starting line of these qualifications, against 96 usually. 

and as many players 12 qualifying tickets for the main draw, according to the official Roland-Garros website

In addition to these players, there are those who benefit from "wild cards", in other words invitations from the tournament management.

Some allow you to enter the main draw directly, others require you to go through the qualifications. 

How it works ? 

Players compete against each other during the five days of the week preceding the start of the "real" tournament.

For both men and women, the matches are best of three sets and you have to win three consecutive matches to qualify. 

The "seeds" are established in the table of qualifications, as in the main table: the confrontations are planned so that the best classified cannot face each other in the first two matches.

The "prize money" also begins in the first round of qualifying.

For an elimination in the first round, each player received 10,000 euros in 2020. By way of comparison, an elimination in the first round of the main tournament brought in 60,000 euros last year. 

Finally, losing is not necessarily eliminating!

Those who are among the eight best eliminated in the third round of qualifying obtain the status of "lucky loser" (LL for short).

They are the ones who are drafted in the event of a forfeit in the main draw. 

How many French? 

The system of "wild cards", part of which is allocated to French players, especially juniors, favors the presence of tricolors in the qualifying table.

The number of the latter to pass the stage of this preliminary week depends on the years.

In 2020, only one Frenchman, Benjamin Bonzi, was one of the 16 happy men. 

In 2019, Elliot Benchetrit, 20 years old and 273rd in the world, climbed to the second round of the main draw after going through qualifying.