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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Rarely in other sports do you find the words “lucky” and “loser” in the same sentence, let alone right next to each other.
But at Indian Wells, “lucky losers” like England’s Sonay Kartal are turning unexpected main draw entries into a jackpot of prize money and career-changing opportunities.
“Obviously, there’s the pressure you put on yourself but you do kind of feel like it’s a second chance, a free run of things,” Kartal said at a tournament press conference Tuesday.
In tennis, a “lucky loser” is a player who loses in the final round of qualifying for a main draw tournament, but then gets a second chance when a spot opens up due to another player’s withdrawal before the tournament begins.
This twist of fate allows them to step into the main draw, changing what would have been a disappointing exit into a potentially transformative opportunity.
Had Kartal’s loss in the last round of qualifying been her final standing, she would have taken home $13,795 in prize money. However, by receiving a lucky loser slot into the main draw, Kartal took home $23,760, nearly double the prize money from the previous round.
Although she lost in the fourth round Wednesday—her first Masters 1000 main draw—to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Kartal is guaranteed a six-figure payday of $103,225, nearly equaling her total yearly prize money to date, and a new career-high WTA ranking.
It’s an underrated part of the tournament’s enormous prize purse. Yes, the winners take home an eye-popping $1.1 million each, but the pool—funded by software billionaire Larry Ellison and heavyweight sponsors like the BNP Paribas bank and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund—also means that both the sport’s middle and lower classes have a chance at a piece of $19 million, the most outside of the Grand Slams.
This surge in earnings is particularly significant in a sport where financial stability is a constant struggle for the majority of players.
With this newfound financial stability bolstering her confidence, Kartal expressed immense satisfaction with her performance and a sense of optimism for the future.
“I think I’ve had a really positive week,” Kartal told Front Office Sports. “You know, I think getting to the round of 16 at a [WTA] 1000 is a new achievement for me, one that I’m proud of. [I am] proud of how I played and handled these conditions. … I’m excited to see what I can do in the next kind of three months or so.”
Roughly 80% of the top 1,000 ranked players, both men and women, fail to break even. In 2022, the average prize money won by women outside of the top 250 was a meager $29,000, according to Vox.
Tennis’s unique structure contributes to this financial strain. Unlike in team sports, where athletes are employees, tennis players are generally considered independent contractors. As a result, most players often bear the burden of expenses—coaches, travel, lodging, training, and more—without support, making every dollar earned crucial for survival.
This makes a “lucky loser” opportunity like Kartal’s an exceptionally rare chance to transform a precarious financial situation into a foundation for future financial security.
As Kartal explained to Sky Sports: The tournament success “definitely does kind of take that financial pressure off.”
