Two-time champion Naomi Osaka and other past U.S. Open winners Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem, and Bianca Andreescu were given wild cards into this year’s tournament on Wednesday.
Osaka won her first of four Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows in 2018 and won again in 2020. However, like the other past champions who received wild cards from the U.S. Tennis Association, she has missed a lot of time in recent seasons and wasn’t ranked high enough to qualify directly.
Osaka returned to the WTA Tour this season after having a daughter last year but is still trying to find the form that made her No. 1 in the rankings and one of the best players on hard courts. She has also won the Australian Open twice.
Osaka also took a break from the tour for mental health reasons and lost in qualifying for this week’s Cincinnati Open.
She shared on Instagram that it felt strange to her “missing balls that I shouldn’t miss, hitting balls softer than I remember I used to.”
Andreescu, a Canadian who defeated Serena Williams for the 2019 U.S. Open title, was out for nine months last year due to a back injury but returned to the tour at the French Open.
Thiem will have a chance to play in his final Grand Slam tournament after announcing earlier this year that he will retire after the season. The 30-year-old Austrian won his only major title at the 2020 U.S. Open but has had a wrist injury for much of the last three years.
Wawrinka, 39, won the 2016 U.S. Open, one of his three Grand Slam titles. Like Thiem, he reached as high as No. 3 in the ATP rankings but is now outside the top 100. He will be making his 72nd appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, which is the fifth most in history.
