Every season, the same chestnut tree. How to obtain enough points to qualify for Grand Slam tournaments, the ultimate objective of players on the circuit? Whether it is to enter the main draw or the qualifications, everyone has their own strategy. If you have to be a member of the Top 100 to enter the final draw of a Major, you must not be ranked lower than 230th in the world (approximately) to hope to enter the qualifications.
The stakes are high. Joining a Grand Slam is a profitable operation, whatever the course. First financially, where a defeat in the first round of a Major brings in much more than a Challenger title. In 2025, the loser in the first round of the Australian Open will receive 132,000 Australian dollars (or 79,729 euros). For qualifying, players will receive respectively $35,000 (€21,140), $49,000 (€29,596), $72,000 (€43,489) for a defeat in the first, second and third round. Amounts that allow you to breathe for the season. For comparison, the Bali Challenger (Indonesia, early January 2025) offered its winner a prize of 30,000 dollars or approximately 28,830 euros. The points gleaned are also much more interesting. For a Grand Slam, a player can amass up to 2,000 points, while a Challenger (2nd tournament division) can earn at best 175 points and a Future (3rd tournament division) 25 points.
Current 188th in the world, Constant Lestienne has known for several weeks that he has obtained his ticket for the qualifications of the Australian Major. However, he decided to go and play in Japan in November, on the Challengers in Kobe (in the center of the country) and in Yokohama (south of Tokyo), to “grab points to finish the year in the top 200”, while a majority of French players chose to stay in Europe. A strategy that paid off since it was in 196th place at the end of October. He preferred Japan to Europe for “a change of scenery, seeing new faces, discovering this country that I didn’t know”, more also for “the surface, very fast, which suits my game well.”
In addition to the surface, the adversity present in each tournament is also a criterion for these points seekers. “There are tournaments where the rankings are lower, and where there are therefore more points to be had, explains Titouan Droguet, 182nd player in the world. For example, in Japan, the lists were a little weaker than in Europe, where it is often very strong.” A strategic choice which allows you to multiply your chances of winning and therefore gaining ATP and WTA points.
“On tournaments which require long travel, where we know that few players want to go, and which are still quite difficult [d’accès]we know that they are less demanding and that it is easier to score points, confirms Alice Tubello, 219th at the WTA. Yes, it’s a strategy to go far.”
“There is a tactical part to this hunt for points at the end of the year. You have to organize your programming well, admits Constant Lestienne in turn. It will also depend on how I play and how I feel. If the confidence is there, I will go more to an ATP, and if I need to re-motivate myself, I will perhaps go more to a Challenger.
“Some players are also leaving for the Futures [catégories au-dessous] because they are a few places away from the Australian Open and are only banking on that to qualify.”
Constant Lestienne, 188th player in the worldat franceinfo: sport
Sometimes, the strategy takes on other appearances, with trials where they shone in order to preserve, the leastthe points won last year. “Some players are playing again the tournaments they won the year before, because they know it and are confident. Others will bet on competitions where they are seeded, because they are a little more protected.” underlines Alice Tubello.
If players most often determine their programming, certain constraints sometimes weigh on their choices. Operated on a shoulder injury in June 2023, Alice Tubello had few alternatives for her return to the circuit in 2024. “I had fallen back to 720th place in the world, which did not reflect my game. I had to go to Burundi for $25,000 tournaments, the only ones where I could enter with my ranking. In Europe, out of the 750, I didn’t even qualify,” remembers the player, who won a title then a final in the two tournaments in which she participated.
Behind, two tournaments ($25,000) in Colombia (semi-final in Anapoima and title in Sopo) allowed him to earn enough points to qualify for Roland-Garros qualifying.
If Alice Tubello achieved her goal by qualifying in Paris, she nevertheless “incurred quite a bit of expense to go there.” Programming choices must be consistent with the player’s objective but above all with his budget, which includes expenses related to the travel of the player and his team. To limit costs, players organize tours in the countries visited, in order to accumulate tournaments, to, again, make the trip profitable.
“Everyone tries to be as strategic as possible, financially speaking,” tranche Alice Tubello. By going to Japan, Constant Lestienne assumes Besides “the financial effort”: “The trip cost more than elsewhere, with the plane ticket, but it was an investment, supports the Amiens. J’I really bet on the fact that I was going to play better in Japan than in Europe.” With a reinforced place in qualifying for the Australian Open, Constant Lestienne has succeeded in his bet.
