Katie Boulter a shock name in the French Open draw just two weeks after announcing her withdrawal

The name of British No. 2 Katie Boulter turned up in the French Open draw on Thursday, even though she has not yet arrived in Paris and is not expected to compete because of a back injury.

Boulter was drawn against 23^rd seed Donna Vekic, but the likelihood is that she will travel to Paris from London – where her Instagram page showed her performing gym exercises on Thursday – in time to collect a pay packet of £20,323.

Her presence in the draw is probably connected with the recently introduced rule that allows players to pull out just before the tournament starts – as long as they turn up in person during the previous couple of days – and earn half the money that they would otherwise pick up for losing their opening match (£40,647 at Roland Garros this year).

A so-called “lucky loser” from qualifying is then parachuted into their place in the draw, and earns the other half of that money, plus any further winnings they might accumulate. While some traditionalists dislike the idea of players coming away with five-figure pay packets when they have not won a match, the slams are effectively making up for the meagre remuneration on offer in ATP Challengers or lower-level WTA tournaments.

Meanwhile British No. 1 Johanna Konta, who enjoyed the best clay-court form of her life on her way to reaching Sunday’s Rome final, will open against a qualifier. On the men’s side, Cameron Norrie can look forward to an intriguing first-round encounter with the ever-turbulent Nick Kyrgios, while Dan Evans has drawn Fernando Verdasco and Kyle Edmund is to play London-based Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

There could be another British woman in the main draw if Katie Swan can survive her final qualifying match on Friday against Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova. Swan showed guts and commitment on Thursday to emerge from a see-sawing battle with China’s Xiyu Wang with a 6-4, 0-6, 7-5 victory. But Heather Watson was eliminated in another tight contest, failing to convert a couple of match points against Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece before going down by a 7-5, 6-7, 7-6 scoreline.