MELBOURNE, Australia — There are familiar names left everywhere on the men's side of the 2024 Australian Open draw: Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Carlos Alcaraz.
It's the seeded players who mostly remain in the last 16. But there's one man who has the designation «WC» after his name. It's France's Arthur Cazaux, a 21-year-old reciprocal wild-card recipient, who has shocked the tennis world by making the second week of a Slam, upsetting 8-seed Holger Rune in the second round, and 28-seed Tallon Griekspoor in the third.
Coming into this tournament, he had won just one ATP tour match. Not a Grand Slam match — a regular, 250-event tour match, over compatriot Adrian Mannarino in Geneva in 2021.
He's the first wild card to make the fourth round of the Australian Open since Denis Istomin in 2017 — though Istomin was a veteran at the time, and a one-time top-40 player on tour.