Players who didn’t make it to the final eight of the Qualifying Tournament, do not get into the Main Draw. They can sign in with the Tournament Director telling him that they are staying around and if any one in the draw withdraws, they’re available to take his spot as a Lucky Loser. But he made sure he got up in time to make the 9:30 a.m. deadline to sign the lucky loser sheet at the tournament office -- just in case.
Good move.
Kendrick returned to his hotel and received a phone call at 10:45 a.m., with the news that he would replace Lleyton Hewitt, who withdrew because of a lower back injury.
'The first couple of mornings I thought it was kind of worthless [signing up],' Kendrick said. 'So I might have had a little fun last night and then I woke up.'
Lucky losers are the highest-ranked players to lose in the final round of qualifying, but then are able to gain entry into the main draw when a player pulls out before his first match.
Because Hewitt was seeded (18th), he received a first-round bye, so Kendrick was inserted into a second-round match with Raemon Sluiter, which he won 6-4, 6-4.
The victory was worth $18,500 for the 87th-ranked Kendrick, the second largest payday of his nondescript seven-year career. He earned $29,180 for reaching the second round of Wimbledon
'I was packing my stuff,' said Kendrick, 27, just 2-7 this year.
Kendrick is one of three lucky losers to win their opening match this week. Russian Evgeny Korolev took Robin Soderling's spot (personal reasons) and Alejandro Falla of
Falla was practicing with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on a practice court when he got the call to play.
'I had like a half hour to be ready,' said the 95th-ranked Falla, who dispatched Sergio Roitman 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a first-round match. 'I was nervous because I wasn't prepared to play.'
The farthest a lucky loser has gone in this tournament was Ivan Ljubicic when he reached the quarterfinals in 2001.
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