Gauthier Delomez with AFP / Photo credits: Ibrahim Ezzat / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 06:24, May 16, 2022, modified at 18:57, May 19, 2023

This is a little-known stage of Roland-Garros and yet has its importance: the qualifying phase begins this Monday. For a week, 128 players ranked beyond the top 100 places in the world will seek to integrate the main tables. Europe 1, official radio of the tournament, offers you a user manual of this preliminary step.

A week before the start of Roland-Garros the qualifiers open. These are small tournaments that allow you to integrate the main tables of the Parisian Grand Slam. And sometimes, despite the extra energy outpouring, some players "from the qualifiers" then achieve a great performance in the "real" tournament. This was the case of Argentina's Nadia Podoroska in 2020, who reached the semi-finals of the women's singles after taking this first step. Europe 1, official radio of Roland-Garros, takes stock of the "qualifs" of the 2023 edition which start this Monday at 10 am.

Who should participate in the qualifications?

Players ranked above 100th in the world must take part in the qualifiers to enter the main draw. For both women and men, 128 participants arrive at the start line to compete for 16 qualifying tickets, as indicated on the official Roland-Garros website. All are ranked between 100th and 230th in the world, with the exception of the nine players and nine even lower-ranked players who benefit from a wild-card. This is an invitation offered to them by the tournament management. Some allow you to enter directly into the big table, others require you to play the qualifications.

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How are they organized?

Qualifiers take place the week before the start of the main tournament, and function as a pile of small tournaments. To qualify for a qualifying ticket, both women and men must win three matches in the best of three rounds. Like the big table, players are distributed according to their world ranking with the "seeding" system. The confrontations are planned so that the two best players of the same part of the table face each other only in the third decisive match.

The prizes reserved are similar for men and women, and again up compared to last year: a player eliminated in the first round of qualifications will receive 16,000 euros, in the second round 22,000 euros and in the third round 34,000 euros.

Also, a player who loses in the third decisive game is not necessarily eliminated. Indeed, those who are among the eight best eliminated get the status of "lucky loser", abbreviated LL on the tables. In case of last-minute absence of a player from the main draw, it is these "lucky losers" who are drafted.

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Will there be French people?

Yes! And among them, many are invited by the organizers of Roland-Garros. These are often very promising young players who are not ranked high enough to compete in qualifying. This is the case, for example, of Gabriel Debru (17 years old, 511th in the world), who won the junior tournament last year. Also invited are Fiona Ferro (26 years old, 365th in the world), Harold Mayot (21 years old, 241st in the world) and Audrey Albié (28 years old, 237th).

The French who will go through the qualifications will hope to do better than the 2022 edition, where only Geoffrey Blancaneaux had managed to climb into the big picture.