Lucky loser
In the event of a lucky loser's re-entry to a competition, it usually occurs before all competitors in the main draw have started their first match in the tournament.
It is rare for a lucky loser to win an ATP or WTA Tour tournament; Heinz Gunthardt did it in 1978 (at Springfield), Bill Scanlon in 1978 (at Maui),[1] Francisco Clavet in 1990 in Hilversum, Christian Miniussi in 1991 in São Paulo, Sergiy Stakhovsky in 2008 in Zagreb, Rajeev Ram in 2009 in Newport, Andrey Rublev in 2017 in Umag, Leonardo Mayer in the following week in 2017 in Hamburg, Marco Cecchinato at the Hungarian Open in 2018, and Kwon Soon-Woo at the 2023 Adelaide International 2.
In May 2023, Jan-Lennard Struff became the first lucky loser to reach a final of an ATP Masters 1000 event, at the 2023 Mutua Madrid Open.
[7] In October 2019, Coco Gauff defeated Jeļena Ostapenko 6–3, 1–6, 6–2 at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz tournament at the age of 15 to become the third woman to accomplish the feat.
[9] Just two weeks after Timofeeva's triumph in Budapest, Nao Hibino became the fifth woman to win a WTA title as a lucky loser, defeating Linda Nosková in the final of the Prague Open.
Prior to the 2005 Wimbledon Championships, American player Justin Gimelstob faced George Bastl from Switzerland in the final qualification round.
Gimelstob, who was the highest-ranked player remaining in the qualifying tournament, aggravated a chronic back complaint during his second qualification match against Vladimir Voltchkov.
[14] Gimelstob did indeed enter the main draw as a lucky loser after the withdrawal of Andre Agassi, reaching the third round, where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt.
While Gimelstob's behavior was not generally considered unethical, it raised concerns by pointing out that any player in a similar position would have little incentive to play a competitive match.
In qualification for the 1958 World Cup, Israel won the Asia–Africa group without playing a match after their opponents withdrew as part of a mass boycott.
Ultimately, Wales, who had lost to Czechoslovakia in Group 4 of European qualification, were drawn, defeated Israel and reached the quarter-finals of the tournament.
At the 1970 Women's World Cup, West Germany played and lost in two quarter-finals, because travel visa problems prevented Czechoslovakia from attending the tournament in Italy.
[17] Manchester United withdrew from the 1999–2000 FA Cup as their first fixture in the tournament clashed with the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship in Brazil.
They were reinstated to the Champions League after losing the Confederation Cup play-off as Vita Club was found guilty of fielding an ineligible player in their preliminary round tie against Mafunzo and was disqualified.
NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams compete to earn a place in an annual tournament to determine that season's champion.
Teams may qualify for the tournament by earning an automatic bid as the champion or other designated representative of their conference or by being selected at-large by a committee.
Some conferences have member teams that are not eligible for the NCAA tournament due to either being in transition to Division I or sanctions as a result of rules violations.
[32] Fairleigh Dickinson went on to defeat the Texas Southern Tigers, 84–61, in a First Four contest on March 15,[33][34] before its 63–58 upset of the Purdue Boilermakers at Nationwide Arena two days later, to become the second-ever underdog to win a #1 vs. #16 match.
