US Open: Peter Polansky completes the Lucky Loser Slam

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic all failed to win the real Grand Slam. The Canadian Peter Polansky has done this feat – in his very own way.

Peter Polansky will probably never win a Grand Slam tournament in his career, unlike the players mentioned above. But he still has one thing ahead of them: the 30-year-old managed to get the so-called Lucky Loser Slam.

Unbelievable, but true: Polansky failed in the final qualifying round for all four majors in 2018. The fact that he was still in the main field at every Grand Slam is mainly due to one thing: luck.

At the Australian Open he failed on the Indian Yuki Bhambri, at the French Open Polansky lost to Jozef Kovalik and in Wimbledon he lost to Jason Kubler in the last qualifying round. Every time he reached the main field as Lucky Loser. That was historic, as no player had ever been lucky enough to slip into the main draw three times in a row as a “lucky winner”.

At the US Open, he got ready to go one better. After victories against Sergio Gutierrez-Ferrol and Santiago Giraldo, Polansky met the American Donald Young. The Canadian failed in three sets but slipped into the draw pot due to his good ranking position.

Even before the draw it was clear that two of the four best players who had failed at the final qualifying hurdle would still be in the main field after Pablo Cuevas and Jared Donaldson’s rejections.

It came as it had to come. Besides Lorenzo Sonego, Peter Polansky was also bred: The Lucky Loser slam was perfect.

“Somehow I knew it would happen. But of course I was still nervous,” said the world number 120 after the draw.

So much luck was followed by some bad luck. In the first round, the 30-year-old will face Alexander Zverev, fourth in the world rankings. Polansky won’t (almost) care: It’s a trick nobody’s gonna do that for him so fast.

The tableau of the US Open