What is a 'lucky loser' in tennis?

Jack Draper has become the second British hopeful to make a last-minute withdrawal from Wimbledon because of injury.

He joins Emma Raducanu on the list, after the British women's number one withdrew through injury on the eve of the tournament.

World number 106, Latvia’s Darja Semenistaja, has been announced as the 'lucky loser' to replace Raducanu, with world number 153, Serbia's Dusan Lajovic, replacing Draper.

Semenistaja and Lajovic are the highest-ranked players to have reached the men's and women's final qualifying rounds but failed to progress to the main draw.

So how does the system work?

The selection process depends on when the withdrawing player pulls out of the tournament:

Players who are registered on the lucky loser list must be signed in and on-site ready to play in the event of a withdrawal in the first round.

The list is posted each day at least one hour before the sign-in deadline, which is itself half an hour hour before the first scheduled match of the day.

In the rare event of there being more player withdrawals than players available who reached the final qualifying round to replace them, the selection moves on to the highest-ranked players in the penultimate qualifying round.

The random draw policy around withdrawals before qualification has concluded was introduced in 2006 to prevent ethical issues arising.

Previously, it was possible for high-ranking players, who knew they had lucky loser status secured, to deliberately lose in final qualifying rounds in order to help another lower-ranking player progress.

It also meant the system was open to manipulation, such as a 2005 incident during Wimbledon qualifying in which American Justin Gimelstob was advised to still play Switzerland's George Bastl in the final qualification round despite a back injury.

Gimelstob was advised by officials that he would be guaranteed lucky loser status if he still played and lost, and that it was highly likely there would be at least one withdrawal before the start of Wimbledon, giving time for his injury to heal.

The new random draw policy between the two highest-ranking players would have removed his guarantee of selection.

Players are only eligible to be lucky loser entries if they have taken part in a tournament's qualifying rounds.

In some instances, players that already have a place at the tournament withdraw further in advance of it beginning, such as Carlos Alcaraz and Victoria Mboko.

Wimbledon already announced their wildcard replacements close to the time that they withdrew.

The ATP rulebook states:

"The tournament shall pay prize money equal to that paid first-round losers to each player who would have been a direct acceptance if not for the late substitution. This payment shall not apply in the case where the player gained entry into a main draw singles, at any event, by other means."

In this instance, both Raducanu and Draper will receive first-round prize money despite not playing.

Several lucky losers have progressed beyond the opening rounds of Grand Slam tournaments, but none have ever won a title.

The furthest a lucky loser has advanced in Wimbledon is American Lauren Davis, who reached round three in 2019.

However, there have been a handful of lucky losers who have won lower-tier ATP and WTA tournaments.

A notable example of this was then-15-year-old Coco Gauff winning her first title at the Linz Open, after qualifying as a lucky loser.

WTA

ATP

This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.