Being a ‘lucky loser’ in tennis means getting a win despite losing – and with bet365’s Slots Giveaway guaranteeing a share of the prize pot to players with ten or more tickets who do not win a Slots Giveaway prize, you can too.

The term denotes a player who loses in qualifying for a tournament like Wimbledon, but gets to enter the main draw anyway when a player with automatic entry withdraws due to illness or injury.

It essentially gives a player a second chance at prize money and ranking points, even though they have already lost a match. Not unlike bet365’s Slots Giveaway, which gives customers the chance to play for a share of £1,000,000. Up until 8th April, you can earn an unlimited number of tickets during each qualifying period by staking £10 or more on eligible games, with cash prizes of up to £5,000.

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See below for full terms & conditions.

Seven lucky losers who turned losses into wins

Before any tennis tournament, from Wimbledon all the way down to ITF $15ks being played in Mongolia and Yemen, comes the qualifying tournament as players who were not ranked highly enough at the entry deadline to gain automatic entry compete to earn a place in the draw. (You can also sometimes find players who were ranked highly enough to enter and simply forgot to do so in qualifying – the famously mercurial Benoit Paire has been guilty of this!)

Players will play through two or three rounds of qualifying matches in order to earn a place in the main draw, in which a number of spots have been reserved. But often, players who have entered the main draw withdrew before their first match due to illness or injury. In that case, the spot goes to a ‘lucky loser’ – a player who lost in qualifying, usually in the final round.

Where does the ‘lucky’ part come in? Well, partly the player is lucky because they simply have a second chance at winning matches (and hence prize money and ranking points) in that tournament. But over the past few years, players have had to be even luckier. Since an infamous occurrence at Wimbledon in 2005 involving Justin Gimelstob, the order in which players who lost in qualifying get to take up one of those vacated spots in the main draw has been dependent on a random draw, rather than rankings.

It can be tough for players deciding whether to hang around a tournament despite losing in qualifying in the hope that a main-draw player will withdraw, and they will be lucky enough to take up their spot; or to move on to another, often smaller, tournament where they will be guaranteed to at least play a match. But for the luckiest lucky losers, the rewards can be massive.

Here are seven of the luckiest losers tennis has seen.

David Goffin

The tournament: French Open, 2012

At the time of writing, Belgium’s Goffin is a top-10 player. But that was not always the case – far from it. The 21-year-old Goffin was ranked world no. 109 when he entered the qualifying draw for the French Open in 2012, and had only broken into the top 150 a few months previously.

Goffin lost to world no. 137 Joao Sousa in straight sets in the final round of qualifying, but was the only lucky loser to find his way into the men’s singles draw that year. He made full use of the opportunity. In the first Grand Slam main-draw match he had ever played, he beat Czech veteran Radek Stepanek, the 23rd seed, in five sets before again going the distance against French wildcard Arnaud Clement, a former Australian Open finalist.

When he defeated Lukasz Kubot to make the final 16, Goffin not only became the first lucky loser to reach the fourth round since 1978 – he earned the chance to play his idol Roger Federer on the iconic Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Goffin: “My room was plastered with photos of Federer and now I’m going to play him at RG. Still can’t believe it.” pic.twitter.com/lV2JggbR

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 1, 2012

Goffin actually took a set from Federer before losing in four, and was even interviewed alongside his idol after the match.

The Belgian went on to be ranked as high as world no. 7 in 2017 and win four career ATP titles as well as finishing runner-up at the ATP Finals in 2017 and the Cincinnati Masters in 2019.

And he even beat Federer – in one of their 11 meetings.

Dick Norman

The tournament: Wimbledon 1995

What is it about Belgians? Goffin’s compatriot, the delightfully named Dick Norman, never ranked higher than world no. 85 and never won a singles title, but he put together an incredible run at Wimbledon in 1995 as a lucky loser.

After getting his first stroke of luck by reaching the main draw despite losing in qualifying, Norman received another when 1987 champion Pat Cash retired after one set in the first round. Norman went on to beat 13th seed Stefan Edberg, a Wimbledon champion in 1988 and 1990, and legend Todd Woodbridge – who, despite being best known as a doubles player who would win nine Wimbledon titles, was also a handy singles player who made the Wimbledon semifinals in 1997.

Norman’s run was stopped by Boris Becker in the fourth round and Pete Sampras would go on to win the tournament.

Coco Gauff

The tournament: Upper Austria Ladies Linz, 2019

Cori ‘Coco’ Gauff exploded on to the tennis scene in July 2019 when the 15-year-old qualified for the main draw of Wimbledon without dropping a set (the youngest woman to do so in the Open Era) and went on to defeat Venus Williams, Magdalena Rybarikova and Polona Hercog to reach the last 16 before losing to Simona Halep.

Gauff became an overnight superstar with the likes of Samuel L. Jackson and Michelle Obama tweeting about her, but was still limited by the WTA’s age eligibility rules when it came to how many tournaments she could play. She put one of those slots to good use in October 2019, however, at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz. Despite being defeated by Tamara Korpatsch in qualifying, Gauff got into the main draw as a lucky loser, then defeated five opponents, including top seed Kiki Bertens and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the final, claim her maiden WTA Tour title – the youngest WTA singles champion since 2004.

Read more about Coco Gauff’s most impressive feats so far here.

Marco Trungelliti

The tournament: French Open 2018

Argentina’s Trungelliti may not have had the deepest run at a major of the players listed here, but his Roland Garros experience in 2018 was certainly memorable and not just for him.

A player who deserved a little luck after being shabbily treated by the Tennis Integrity Unit when he correctly reported a match-fixing approach, Trungelliti lost in the final round of qualifying to Hubert Hurkacz and headed home to Barcelona, where his brother, mother and grandmother were staying, having made the trip from Argentina hoping to see him in Paris.

Trungelliti had not even unpacked when he heard the news that he was first alternate should a player withdraw from the main draw – and sure enough, Nick Kyrgios did.

Trungelliti said: ‘[M]y grandma was in the shower and I told her: “OK, we go to Paris.”‘

 

INSÓLITO MOMENTO EN #RolandGarros. ??

Marco #Trungelliti está viajando AHORA de Barcelona a París para jugar el draw como Lucky Loser. !Se bajaron 8 jugadores! DE LOCURAAA ???https://t.co/47TGzqNLfz pic.twitter.com/TMBDcBh0Hz

— BATennis (@BATennisCom) May 27, 2018

Together with his brother, mother and 89-year-old grandmother, Trungelliti drove for ten hours from Barcelona to Paris in time to sign in as a lucky loser – then beat Bernard Tomic in the first round.

His family road trip became a media sensation, although he was defeated by Marco Cecchinato in the second round.

George Bastl

The tournament: Wimbledon 2002

Search ‘biggest Wimbledon upsets’, and you are guaranteed to find the name of George Bastl, who famously knocked out seven-time champion Pete Sampras in the second round in 2002 on the old No. 2 Court, which lived up to its nickname as the ‘graveyard of champions’.

But few remember that Bastl, then ranked world no. 145, was a lucky loser who had only earned his place in the tournament after another player withdrew. Bastl had lost in qualifying but, granted a lucky loser slot, had the good fortune to face another lucky loser in the first round and earned his shot at Sampras, the ageing champion whose best days were clearly behind him.

Sampras still managed to level the match after trailing by two sets, but Bastl claimed the fifth to win 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3. Sampras never played at Wimbledon again, and Bastl never won a five-set match again. He was knocked out in the third round by David Nalbandian.

But Bastl plays another role on this list …

Justin Gimelstob

The tournament: Wimbledon 2005

Better known these days as a man who brought the sport into enormous disrepute not once but twice, first by outrageously misogynistic comments about Anna Kournikova and secondly by being sentenced for an unprovoked assault on a former friend, Gimelstob was a player before he was a tennis insider, ATP Board member, commentator and coach – and he played a big role in changing the lucky loser system as we know it.

Gimestob faced none other than Bastl in the final round of qualifying for Wimbledon in 2005, but had aggravated a back injury during his previous qualifying match and told Bastl he planned to withdraw. Officials advised Gimelstob to play at least one game against Bastl, because as the highest-ranked player in qualifying, he was almost certain to get a lucky loser spot – berths in the main draw were distributed according to ranking at that time – and the extra few days would give his back a chance to recover.

Gimelstob followed this advice, entered the main draw after Andre Agassi withdrew, and made it to the third round as a lucky loser before losing to Lleyton Hewitt. Tennis authorities adjusted the rule soom afterwards.

Melinda Czink

The tournament: Canberra International, 2005

Hungary’s Melinda Czink proved you can be both lucky and unlucky as a lucky loser with her run at the Canberra International in 2005.

Czink, ranked world no. 128 at the time, lost in the final round of qualifying to Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in straight sets, 1-6, 3-6. She then entered the draw as a lucky loser, ousted four top-100 players including second seed Anna Smashnova in the second round, and reached her maiden WTA Tour final – only to find herself facing Ana Ivanovic, and losing, again, although she did get two more games, losing 5-7, 1-6.

Ivanovic, of course, would go on to win the French Open in 2008 and be ranked world no. 1. Czink wasn’t quite so fortunate: She won a solitary WTA Tour title in 2009 and retired in 2014. But she did succeed in beating Ivanovic once before she called it a day.

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Where any term of the offer is breached or there is evidence of a series of wagers placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 may reclaim the bonus or enhanced payment element of such offer, void any wager funded through the offer and/or remove any winnings from such wager. In addition, where there is evidence of such activity, bet365 may levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the bonus or enhanced payment towards the administrative costs incurred in identifying and taking action against that activity.
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