US Open Tennis Men’s Wildcards • Brandon Nakashima, Jenson Brooksby, Jack Sock, Ernesto Escobedo and More

By Witherspoon
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Updated: August 18, 2021

Atlanta finalist Brandon Nakashima has received a US Open wild card. EPA-EFE/ERIK S. LESSER

Rising young Americans Jenson Brooksby, Brandon Nakashima and Emilio Nava as well as former world No. 8 Jack Sock and Ernesto Escobedo lead the list of US Open men’s main-draw wild cards.

NCAA singles champion Sam Riffice and USTA Boys’ 18s national champion Zachary Svajda were both awarded main-draw wild cards.

Australian Max Purcell will receive a main draw wild card as part of a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia.

The 2021 US Open will be played August 30-September 12th at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

Brooksby, 20, of Sacramento, Calif., has enjoyed a breakout season in 2021 and recently broke into the ATP Top 100, currently ranked a career-best No. 99. He has won three ATP Challenger Tour titles this year, reached his first ATP Tour final at the US Open Series’ Hall of Fame Open in Newport, R.I., earlier this summer and reached the semifinals of the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., an ATP 500 event.

Nakashima, 20, of San Diego, also achieved his career-high ranking this week, coming in at No. 86 after a remarkable summer that saw him reach back-to-back ATP Tour finals in Los Cabos, Mexico and Atlanta. He qualified for the main draw of Wimbledon and added his second ATP Challenger Tour title earlier this year.

Nava, 19, of Los Angeles, is currently ranked No. 381, a career-best. He was the boys’ singles finalist at the 2019 US Open, the last time the junior competition was held. He also reached the boys’ singles final at the 2019 Australian Open and is a two-time junior Grand Slam doubles finalist. He earned his first professional title earlier this year at an ITF World Tennis Tour M15 event in La Nucia, Spain.

Jack Sock has received a US Open wild card. EPA-EFE/IAN LANGSDON

Sock, 28, of Charlotte, N.C., is currently ranked No. 185 but has been ranked as high as No. 8 in the world. Battling back after a number of injuries, Sock reached his first ATP Tour quarterfinal since 2018 at the Hall of Fame Open earlier this summer. He also won an ATP Challenger Tour title in May.

Escobedo, 25, of Los Angeles, is currently ranked No. 179 and has been ranked as high as No. 67. Recently, he qualified for the main draw of the ATP 250 event in Los Cabos, Mexico, reaching the quarterfinals and reached the semifinals at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Lexington, Ky. Earlier this year he qualified for the main draw of the Miami Open, reaching the second round.

Riffice, 22, of Orlando, Fla., is currently ranked No. 690. He won the NCAA men’s singles title in May representing the University of Florida after helping lead the Gators to the NCAA team national title as well. The following week, he reached the semifinals of an ATP Challenger Tour event in his hometown of Orlando.

Svajda, 18, of San Diego, is currently ranked No. 716. He won the 2021 USTA Boys’ 18s national championship, defending his title from 2019 (the last time the event was held). He became the first player to win back-to-back boys’ 18s singles titles since Jack Sock did so in 2010 and 2011. Svajda memorably pushed ATP Tour veteran Paolo Lorenzi to five sets in the first round of the 2019 US Open at the age of 16. Purcell, 23, of Sydney, Australia, is currently ranked No. 206 in singles. An accomplished doubles player, he will be making his US Open singles main draw debut.

The USTA also announced the men receiving wild cards into the US Open Qualifying tournament, held August 24-27 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center: Ulises Blanch (23; Orlando, Fla.), a former world No. 2-ranked junior and two-time ATP Challenger Tour winner; Christian Harrison (27; Shreveport, La.), who reached the semifinals of the Delray Beach Open in January and has improved his ranking by nearly 800 spots this year after returning from a number of injuries; Zane Khan (19; Houston), who has won three ITF World Tennis Tour titles this year; Aleks Kovacevic (22; New York), a former All-American at the University of Illinois and 2021 USTA Summer Collegiate Team member; Stefan Kozlov (23; Pembroke Pines, Fla.) a former world No. 115 who reached two junior Grand Slam finals and has won two ATP Challenger Tour titles; Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (24, New York) a former standout at the University of California, Santa Barbara who has won three ITF World Tennis Tour titles this year; Govind Nanda (20, Redlands, Calif.), a current UCLA star who competed in qualifying at the 2019 US Open after finishing runner-up at the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships and recent winner of a ITF World Tennis Tour M25 title; Ben Shelton (18, Gainesville, Fla.), this year’s USTA Boy’s 18s singles finalist and rising sophomore at the University of Florida; and Eliot Spizzirri (19, Greenwich, Conn.), the 2019 US Open boys’ doubles champion and current University of Texas standout who also recently won a ITF World Tennis Tour M25 title.