What qualifies a player to play at the winbledon?

Question

What qualifies a player to play at the winbledon?

Answer 1

It's mostly based on ranking. Players of certain rankings will gain automatic entry to the main draw, and lower ranked players that the tournament directors feel would be good in the main draw can gain a Wildcard entry into it.

Then the other players have to go through several rounds of qualifying. There are a certain number of spaces (I don't know the exact number, but I think it's like eight or something) for qualifiers to get into the main draw. So the top eight or so qualifiers gain entry into the main draw after winning their qualifying matches. As for who gets into qualifying is really up to the tournament directors too.

Answer 2

I also read the other day that top 104 players in the world gain automatic entry into the main draw.

The others have to qualify or have to be granted wild cards. Wild cards are usually given to players who have been injured or have fell in the rankings and cannot gain automatic entry into the  draw. Usually this is done to give the players more match play and because they are usually crowd favorites. Some of the more consistent wild card players this year have been Safin, Kuerten, and Malisse. Also, wild cards are often given to players who reside in the country in which the tournament takes place. At this year's Wimbledon, for example, you might have noticed a lot of British players in the draw who you've never heard of before. They either qualified or most likely were wild cards.