French Open wildcards named as tennis icon snubbed while world no. 623 included

The French Open is set to start on Monday, May 18, and the wildcards have been confirmed, with several icons set to receive a swansong at Roland Garros.

Former champion Stan Wawrinka, who will retire at the end of this season, has been handed a spot at the tournament with a wildcard slot.

The Swiss tennis star lifted three Grand Slam trophies during his career, including at Roland Garros in 2015.

This decision to see the 41-year-old is no surprise to the tennis world, as it is known that he was to retire at the end of the season, and French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo confirmed that organisers would honour Wawrinka following his last match at Stade Roland Garros.

French veteran Gael Monfils will also be honoured during the tournament, as he is set to take part in the French Open for the last time, as he announced his retirement will come at the end of the campaign.

On the women’s side, world No. 623, Ksenia Efremova, has been given one of the wildcard slots, with the 17-year-old set to make her Grand Slam debut.

Venus Williams of the United States in action with partner Katie Boulter of Great Britain against Sofia Kenin of the United States and Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipeh (Getty Images)

Efremova has impressed at the underage level, as she won the Australian Open junior girls’ title in January and reached No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings.

As she began her Grand Slam career, there was no place for sentiment regarding one tennis icon, as Venus Williams was snubbed in the wildcard selection.

The American has reached the final of the French Open previously and is a seven-time Grand Slam winner, but at the age of 45, she will not be playing at Roland Garros this month.

Williams had aimed to play in Paris after missing the Italian Open as it clashed with the Met Gala; however, it has been confirmed she will not take part after missing out on the wildcard selection.

Speaking in Madrid, she had said: “Yeah, I mean, to get my feet dirty, this was a great start. I'm not able to play Rome; I have other commitments, unfortunately, so I'm really super sad about that, actually. My husband is Italian, so we feel sad that we can't be there. So we would love to keep it going on the clay.”