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2004 champion Gaudio gets wild card

The wild cards for the men's and women's singles draws have been allocated, with a few famous names figuring among the men's invitees – none more so than Gaston Gaudio.

Gaudio was a winner here at the French Open in 2004, defeating fellow Argentinean Guillermo Coria in an epic five-setter. Since then however, his career has gone into freefall after a combination of physical and mental problems. 30-year-old Gaudio is currently languishing at No395 in the ATP rankings, having been as high as fifth in April 2005.

This marks the second year in a row that the tournament directors have given a wild card to a former winner, with three-time champion Gustavo Kuerten being invited in 2008.

Two of the other wild cards in the men's singles were assigned to American John Isner and Australian Bernard Tomic as part of an agreement between the French, US and Australian federations, while the remaining five went to French players Adrian Mannarino, Josselin Ouanna, Laurent Recouderc, Guillaume Rufin and Alexandre Sidorenko.

The women's wild cards followed a similar pattern, with Lauren Embree (USA) and Olivia Rogowska (Australia) joining Frenchwomen Claire Feuerstein, Kinnie Laisné, Emilie Loit, Kristina Mladenovic, Irena Pavlovic and Olivia Sanchez in the first round of the draw.