Naomi Osaka, fellow past champions Wawrinka, Thiem and Andreescu given US Open wild cards
Two-time champion Naomi Osaka and fellow past U.S. Open winners Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem and Bianca Andreescu were given wild cards into this year’s tournament
NEW YORK (AP) — Two-time champion Naomi Osaka and fellow past U.S. Open winners Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem and Bianca Andreescu were given wild cards Wednesday into this year's tournament.
Osaka won the first of her four Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows in 2018 and took the title again in 2020. But like the other past champions given wild cards by the U.S. Tennis Association, she has missed significant time in recent seasons and was not ranked highly enough to qualify directly for the tournament.
Osaka returned to the WTA Tour this season after giving birth last year to a daughter, but is still searching for the form that led her to No. 1 in the rankings and made her one of the most dominant players on hard courts, having also won the Australian Open twice.
Osaka, who also left the tour for mental health reasons, lost in qualifying for this week's Cincinnati Open. She wrote afterward in an Instagram post that it was a strange feeling “missing balls that I shouldn't miss, hitting balls softer than I remember I used to.”
