The list of entries to Roland Garros was published on Tuesday, and with it came disappointment to players who wished to be at the second Grand Slam of the year; that entry will not come automatically. Names not in the list will have to go through the qualification rounds to get into the main draw. Some of the headline names were missing from the direct entry cutoff from both tours, and each name has a story that goes way beyond the number next to their name.

On the men’s side, Stan Wawrinka, who is playing his farewell tour, fell just four places short of direct access. The 41-year-old Swiss, the 2015 Roland Garros winner, is ranked 107th in the world, which means that he relies on a wildcard for what would surely be his final appearance at a tournament that he once conquered.

In February, he made a brief re-entry to the top 100 after making the third round at the Australian Open in January. But a loss in the first round at Monte Carlo to Sebastian Baez pushed him lower in the rankings. Most recently, he played at the Barcelona Open with a wild card, where he lost to 7th seed Cameron Norrie in a hard-fought three-setter. The Swiss are going to miss the Madrid Masters and are expected to return to Rome.

On the WTA end, Paula Badosa is five places out of her own draw, continuing to work through the effects of a ripped labrum that has curtailed her 2026 season. The Spaniard has been dealing with a stress fracture since 2023, which has affected her career significantly. The hip issue has been a new addition. After registering her best performance in a Grand Slam at the 2025 Australian Open, where she lost to her best friend Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals, Badosa has never looked the same.

She has withdrawn from multiple tournaments, and even if she participated, it was followed by mid-match retirements. After ending the 2025 season at No. 25 in the world, she has slipped to No. 106 currently with a 9-11 record in the year.

Badosa started her clay court swing at Charleston, where she reached the third round of the event, losing to eighth seed Anna Kalinskaya. She had a spirited win in the previous round against the 10th seed Maria Sakkari, which gave her a lot of confidence. This was followed by a first-round exit in Austria against Lilli Tagger. She traveled to Stuttgart, looking for her redemption, but the result was the same. The 28-year-old would be playing at the Madrid Open, where she was awarded a wild card entry.

Another name on the ATP side that was snubbed from the list was Grigor Dimitrov. The Bulgarian, who was ranked in the top 20 at Wimbledon 2025, suffered a pectoral muscle tear against Jannik Sinner in the fourth round.

The 34-year-old was in a winning position, leading 2-0 sets, and was tied at 2-2 in the third; that’s when the injury kicked in. He had to retire mid-match, which marked the fourth consecutive retirement at the Grand Slam for Dimitrov. Since then, his graph has been on a downward trajectory. He fell out of the top 100 for the first time in 14 years, currently sitting at No. 135 with a 2-7 record in the comeback season.

The women’s entry list is topped by the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, alongside Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, reigning Roland Garros title holder Coco Gauff, and four-time Paris winner Iga Swiatek. Lilli Tagger, the champion of the 2025 girls’ French Open, got her main draw debut when a quarterfinal performance at the Linz Open propelled her 20 places up inside the top 100.

Anchoring the men’s draw are Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, who delivered one of the best finals in the history of Roland Garros last June and are expected to do so once again in Paris. Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic complete the current top four.

We will have to wait until mid-May to know if all three players, Wawrinka, Badosa, and Dimitrov, get a wild card or not. All of them are worthy of the entry, as time and again, they have showcased that they are built for the big stage.

Stan Wawrinka is gracious but uncertain over wildcard hopes

In the case of Stan Wawrinka, the news about the entry list formalizes a state of affairs at which he had been glancing with silent apprehension. At Monte Carlo, he recognized his Roland Garros future with a frankness that was generous and confiding.

“There are plenty of players who deserve it. I would understand if I don’t get the wild card,” he said.

His prudence towards the clay swing has been influenced by a calculated and thought-out move to safeguard himself physically throughout the entire season. The Swiss was direct when asked about his absence from Indian Wells and Miami, two of the largest tournaments of the hardcourt swing.

“I didn’t want to go that far. Travelling is not easy after more than 20 years on tour. I felt that if I wanted to play the full year and still be physically and mentally fit, it was better not to take that trip,” he said ahead of his Monte Carlo opener.

There was a fan war against the organizers at that time, when the former world No. 3 was not participating in the Sunshine Double. There was a narrative that the organizers declined the wildcard to Wawrinka, but in reality, it was the other way round.

It is a decision that makes complete sense for a 41-year-old in his farewell season. Roland Garros is one of the courts that mean the most, and Wawrinka is saving energy for the moments that count the most. He has also indicated that he would prefer to play in Geneva a week before Roland Garros than to compete in qualifying, which implies that the wildcard ruling will be decisive.

“I’ll see if I get the chance to play Roland Garros; I’d really like to,” Wawrinka said.

Wawrinka is not a stranger to the wildcards in the latter part of his career. He has taken them on different occasions as his ranking has risen and fallen during his last season, and his name is a magnet wherever he goes. Roland Garros would be incomplete without the man who won this title 11 years ago in his final season. The French Federation is aware of it. Whether they act on it is now the question.