NEW YORK -- The jarring buzz of the alarm echoed around the office at 10:30 a.m. on the dot.
For a few noisy seconds, the sound filled the referee's office, just a handful of steps off the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The lucky loser sign-in process for the first day of the main draw at the US Open was officially over.
The fate of nine women and five men -- all of whom had lost in the final round of qualifying last week and dutifully signed in on Sunday morning -- was now dependent on the misfortune of a peer. A "CLOSED 10:30" note was written at the bottom of both forms in daunting red ink.
Less than a minute after the alarm rang, Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 tournament champion, came into the office with her dad. Her ranking plummeted after a series of injuries, and she was unfamiliar with the lucky loser process. She and her dad peppered the tournament official with questions. Where was she on the list? (seven) Had any woman already withdrawn? (no) If someone didn't sign in today, would they still be able to sign in the next day and potentially bump her further down the list? (yes)
Soon after, Vendula Valdmannova, an 18-year-old hoping to play in the first major main draw of her career, came in with a series of similar questions.
The buzz of activity in the office only intensified. There were weather reports, and players continued to trickle in to see where they were on the list, as well as sign in for the doubles draws. And at 10:52 a.m., just eight minutes before the first matches were scheduled to begin, Dr. Melissa Leber, the tournament's director of player medical services, arrived, speaking in a hushed tone and carrying a clipboard. She and Jake Garner, the US Open's referee, privately conversed for a few moments before Garner signed some paperwork. A player -- later identified as Casper Ruud, the 2022 runner-up -- was injured and would need to be replaced. From there, a series of actions, to signify Ruud's absence and alert Arthur Gea, the lucky loser given his spot, were quickly underway.
Ruud's first-round match was not scheduled until Tuesday, so Gea had two days to prepare to play Juan Manuel Cerundolo and was able to leave the site for the day. But that was not the case for the four other men and nine other women who remained on the list, hoping for their chance. Those players all had to remain at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in order to play -- sometimes at a moment's notice -- against anyone, at any time and on any court. And then, if still not called up to the big show, they would do it again on Monday, Tuesday and, after rain delays, into Wednesday.
"Basically, you have to act like you're playing every day," Valdmannova told ESPN on Sunday. "You have to get up in the morning early, get breakfast and get here on time and sign your name, and then just be close by, stay by your phone and just wish and cross your fingers that somebody will pull out.
"It's not the best [scenario] because you're looking at the [other] girls and seeing that someone might not be feeling well, and you don't want her to feel bad, but at the same time, I want to play. It's not the greatest feeling, but everyone wants to play in the main draw, so it is what it is."
NO MATTER HOW it might sound, being called a lucky loser is not an insult.
In tennis, it refers to a player who is defeated in the final round of qualifying but gets into the main draw when another player withdraws before their first-round match. At a Slam, 16 men and 16 women lose in the final round of qualifying. The four players in each draw with the highest current ranking are then drawn at random -- with poker chips at the US Open -- to determine the order. The remaining players are listed in order of ranking. Those players are required to sign in on-site, with a deadline of 30 minutes before the start of the first scheduled matches and remain on the grounds. If a player in the main draw has to withdraw, the top-listed remaining player who has signed in gets the call. (Players are not replaced once the opening round has concluded)
In addition to the chance -- no matter how slim -- to contend for a title, playing in the main draw also comes with a guaranteed $140,000 paycheck. For Valdmannova, that would be a payday nearly double her career earnings, and money that could go to necessary expenses such as travel, coaching and training.
And for Valdmannova, reaching her first major main draw would be the achievement of a childhood dream. A 2025 junior doubles champion at Wimbledon, the US Open marked just her second attempt at qualifying at a Slam. She lost in the first round of qualifying at Wimbledon earlier this summer and arrived in New York with the goal of simply doing better and alleviating some of the nerves that had overcome her in London.
"Of course I wanted to qualify, but when I look back, I'm pretty happy with how I did," Valdmannova said. "There are some girls playing in their 15th qualifying draw and have never made it, so for a second Slam, I'll take winning two rounds. I'm getting better, and we'll just go step by step."
Ranked No. 162 at the start of qualifying, Valdmannova had the fourth-highest ranking of those remaining and drew the third position. She was thrilled. No matter what happened, because she was in the top eight who sign in every day, she was essentially guaranteed the treatment of a player in the main draw for the tournament's first three days. That meant reserved times on a practice court, an extended hotel stay, a daily per diem rate and meal allowance, access to the on-site training staff, a chance to use the players-only hair and nail salon and the player gifts.
"Oh my God, there are so many gifts," she said. "I love the gift cards for Uber and American Express."
She decided to treat the experience almost like an understudy role in a play, allowing her to have some of the experience of what playing in a main draw was like, without the pressure, and to observe some of the veteran players.
But it also meant down time, and lots of it.
On Sunday, she went to the players gym and did her typical match warmup, as if she were about to play, and then went to a practice court. Being in the third position, she knew it would be unlikely for her to get the chance to play on the first day, but she remained nervous about missing a potential call.
"I'm not someone that is always on my phone, but I have to have my phone right next to me, even at practice, just in case anything happened," Valdmannova said. "I think someone would come find me if they couldn't reach me but anytime someone texted me [at practice on Sunday], I was like, 'Oh, somebody texted me!' I just wanted to be ready."
She added she would start wearing her match outfit -- no matter what she was doing -- if her position improved. Just in case.
After practicing Sunday, Valdmannova went to cheer on many of her fellow Czech players. "I watched too many matches actually," she joked about the five Czech players in action Sunday.
When no women in the main draw withdrew Sunday, it was more of the same Monday. After signing in at the referee office, she had an early practice session with Darja Semenistaja, the player in the No. 1 lucky loser position, on an outer practice court -- with her phone firmly by her side throughout.
When that was done, she returned to her role as a fan and spectator, taking in the grounds, watching matches and even posing for a picture with a fan who spotted her credential. She sat courtside at Carlos Alcaraz's victory over Roman Safiullin on Ashe, alongside Alcaraz's second-round opponent Jaime Faria for a time, just taking it all in.
And through it all, she tried as best as she could to not pay attention to the health status of the women she knew were questionable.
"I don't want to give myself any hopes," Valdmannova said. "So I mean if it will happen, it'll happen and it will be how it should be. I saw a few players that are struggling at the moment with some injuries, but I mean if I were in their shoes and in their situation, I would still want to go out there and still try to play. That's how it goes."
BEFORE QUALIFYING HAD finished, two men had withdrawn from the main draw.
In order to ensure fairness, the top-ranked losing players don't immediately get the slots, and instead a random draw featuring the top four-ranked losing players takes place. Sometimes players take part -- even getting the chance to draw the chips themselves -- but often, according to Garner, they are too superstitious and an official from the tours or the tournament does the honors. It's the end of a meticulous process, with Garner and those working with him closely monitoring the final day of qualifying and marking every result on a color-coded spreadsheet.
This year, Jacob Fearnley and Shintaro Mochizuki earned the top two slots and were immediately placed with the rest of the qualifiers and put into the main draw. By the end of the first round, three more men had withdrawn, including Ruud, for a total of five men to earn a lucky loser spot.
On the women's side, just one player withdrew, allowing Semenistaja, Valdmannova's Monday practice partner, to sneak into the draw. It marked her second consecutive major playing in the main draw as a lucky loser.
While their chances get increasingly rare the further down the list they are, every player who loses in the final round of qualifying is eligible to sign in and maintain their hope for a main draw spot. But only the top eight that sign in receive the extended benefits and on-site privileges.
For some players, it's worth trying, no matter how far-fetched -- especially those who are also playing doubles. Others would rather cut their losses and head to another tournament. Just one player -- Joanna Garland, the 11th-positioned woman -- informed the tournament ahead of time she wouldn't be sticking around.
While there is no exception to the sign-in process and the deadline, the tournament tries to make it as seamless as possible in case a spot opens, with constant communication to the players, their teams and various tour and tournament representatives and departments.
"Most of the time I'd say we know of the vacancy with some notice," Garner told ESPN. "Somebody who's [scheduled as the] third [match] comes in, woke up, back locked up, can't play. They've seen the doctor and they pull out and we're still playing the first match. But rarely there are extreme cases with much less time. ... The privileges extend because we want them to be here and don't want them to leave. So hopefully they've been getting loose in the gym or on the practice court and can be as ready as they can throughout the day."
Sometimes that can be as little as just a few minutes. At the Australian Open last year, Eva Lys already had her flight home booked. She was receiving treatment from a physio when she was told that Anna Kalinskaya had pulled out, and she had just 10 minutes to prepare for her match against Kimberly Birrell.
Lys somehow won the match -- and ultimately advanced all the way to the fourth round.
In the Open era, 12 men and seven women, including Lys, have ridden their lucky loser status all the way into the round of 16 at majors. It happened again most recently earlier this year at the French Open, where Jesper de Jong defeated a slew of notable opponents, including three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka and No. 13 seed Karen Khachanov. He fell to eventual champion Alexander Zverev.
No lucky loser has advanced to the quarterfinals yet. But there have been a handful of players, including Donna Vekic at the 500-level Queen's Club in June, who have won tour-level titles after losing in qualifying.
Despite being new to the tour, Valdmannova has found herself waiting for a coveted lucky loser slot in what she estimated to be 15 to 20 professional tournaments. But despite ample opportunity, she had never once found her fate reversed.
"Not one time," she said with a smile. "I'm the unluckiest lucky loser."
In the end, Valdmannova didn't get her name called yet again. But even before she knew if she would make the main draw or not, she still was grateful for the chance.
"Even if I don't get in, I'll still take this experience and be happy with it," Valdmannova said. "I'm making progress. And I would normally have stayed here [in the area] anyway because I'm going to play next week in [South America] so I would have had to find somewhere else to practice. This was a perfect situation."
