James Blake, Donald Young Among US Open Main Draw Wildcards

The USTA announced that James Blake was awarded a main draw wildcard into the US Open. Joining Blake as wildcard recipients are fellow Americans Donald Young, Bradley Klahn, Ryan Sweeting and Jack Sock.

As part of an Australia-France exchange, wildcards also went to Carsten Ball of Australia and Guillaume Rufin of France.

The last of the eight men’s wildcards will be determined by an 8-man playoff held in Key Biscayne from August 18-20. Among the competitors are Chase Buchanan, Andrea Collarini, Alexander Domijan, Ryan Harrison, Jamere Jenkins, Steve Johnson, Austin Krajicek and Tim Smyczek.

Blake is a two-time US Open quarterfinalist and a former No. 4 ranked player. But this year the 30-year-old’s seen his ranking slip to a current mark of No. 107. Earlier today Blake suffered his third consecutive tour defeat in a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Denis Istomin in the first round at Cincinnati.

The 21-year-old Young plays today against Ernests Gulbis.

Sock earned an automatic berth after the 17-year-old won the Kalamazoo USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships on Sunday. Klhan, 20, won the NCAA singles as a sophomore for Stanford this spring.

The US Open begins on August 30. The singles main draws will be released next Wednesday.