LONDON --  Wimbledon 2024 opens with a resounding volley of questions. Will Carlos Alcaraz repeat as champion and win his fourth Grand Slam title? Will Jannik Sinner, the current No. 1, become the first Italian to win the world’s most celebrated grass court tournament? Will Novak Djokovic recover from a miserable season in which he has won no titles and take his 8^th championship at Wimbledon, less than a month after knee surgery?

 But for sixteen men and sixteen women, competition at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club will commence with an exclamation point, not a question mark. These are the players who have already survived the brutal baptism of fire called the qualies. In a shadow competition that takes place the week before Wimbledon, the nerves and stamina of players ranked too low to get straight into the draw at Wimbledon are sorely strained. They must win three straight matches to qualify for the main event. This battle before the battle is generally composed of grizzled veterans hoping for a last hurrah (and payday) and rising stars hoping to rocket higher in the ATP and WTA rankings.

 The qualies at the other three Grand Slams – the Australian, the French and US Opens – are played on the same courts as the main draw. But at Wimbledon, where the grass courts on the grounds are guarded like the crown jewels, nobody wants the pristine lawns roughed up by gangs of also-rans. Thus the Wimbledon qualies are relegated to the Bank of England Club several miles away at Roehampton. Say what you will about the lovely greensward at Roehampton, it isn’t the fabled Centre Court. The facilities off-court also fall far short of the princely accommodations at SW19, where the locker rooms resemble -- and feel and smell like a members-only club reserved for royalty.

 Competitors at Roehampton used to scrabble through three three-set matches for no prize money. Although players in the main draw have since 1968 been handsomely compensated, those who toiled in the trenches of the qualies received not a cent of the game’s financial riches. They were like summer interns auditioning for full-time jobs.

 Eventually the absurdity, not to mention the obscenity, of this situation, became too blatant to ignore. And so the low-ranked players were emancipated and received their share of a very rich pie. This year, first round losers at the Wimbledon qualies pocket £15,000. Second round losers console themselves with £25,000. And third round losers receive £40,000 which is more than the average annual income in England. Those who fight through to the main draw at Wimbledon can count on £60,000 if they lose in the first round.

 Many qualifiers don’t just serve as whipping boys for their betters. A number of them make it to the later rounds of the tournament and earn enough to keep then afloat on the cut-throat pro tour for an entire year. The king of the qualifiers is John McEnroe who in 1967 as an 18-year-old recent high school graduate laid waste to the field at Roehampton and romped through Wimbled all the way to the semi-finals where he lost to Jimmy Connors. Since McEnroe was then an amateur, his cash reward was zilch. Later he went on to win three handsomely reward Wimbledon titles. Despite his reputation as an obstreperous loudmouth in his youth, he has mellowed into one of the sport’s most popular commentators.

 On the women’s side the undisputed queen of qualifiers is Emma Raducanu of Great Britain who at the age of 14 came through the qualifying rounds at the 2021 US Open and proceeded to the finals where she won the championship without losing a set. Her prize money amounted to millions and she became an overnight celebrity. A beautiful woman, she attracted dozens of sponsors and sadly almost as many stalkers. She has yet to win another title at any level on the tour but now that she’s recovered from a series of niggling injuries, she is thought to be a dark horse contender for the title at Wimbledon 2024. I wouldn’t bet on that. But in a sport as unpredictable as tennis every bet is a leap in the dark. Who, after all, would have wagered that David Goffin, Richard Gasquet, Diego Schwartzman, all of them former longtime fixtures in the top ten, would lose at this year’s Wimbledon qualies?