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Tennis - The French Tennis Federation has announced that it will award its wild cards for the Australian Open to Océane Dodin and Lucas Pouille. Under a reciprocal agreement between the French and Australian federations, one male and female player from each country gets a wild card into the main draw of the national Grand Slam of the other.
The Australian federation also has a similar arrangement with the USTA. 20-year-old Pouille is ranked No. 133 in the ATP rankings and in October, he qualified for the Paris Masters where he beat 20th ranked Fabio Foginini and 27th ranked John Isner to reach the last 16 where he lost to Roger Federer.
18-year-old Dodin is currently ranked No. 179 in the WTA rankings, after being ranked in the 800s as late as May. She has won 40 of her last 47 matches on the ITF circuit, wininng 4 titles and reaching 2 other finals. American Denis Kudla and Irina Falconi have clinched the USTA wild cards for the Australian Open, which were determined based on results during a three-week USTA series of events.
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