Australian Open 2024: Caroline Wozniacki, James Duckworth handed main draw wild card entries, check full list

Published at :January 10, 2024 at 5:52 PM

Modified at :January 18, 2024 at 2:38 AM

(Courtesy : AFP)

The first grand slam of the season starts on January 14.

The Australian Open 2024, the first tennis grand slam of the year, has announced the list of players who have received wildcards for the main draw. Among them are former champion Caroline Wozniacki, who is making her comeback after retiring in 2021, and nine Australian players, who will boost the home crowd’s hopes.

Wozniacki, who won the title in Melbourne in 2018, returned to the tour in August 2023 and reached the fourth round of the US Open, where she lost to eventual winner Coco Gauff.

The Australian players who have been awarded wildcards are Daria Saville, Jason Kubler, James McCabe, Kimberly Birrell, Olivia Gadecki, Taylah Preston, James Duckworth, Marc Polmans and Adam Walton. Saville, a former top-20 player, and Kubler, the reigning men’s doubles champion, have both shown impressive form in the lead-up to the tournament.

McCabe, a 20-year-old from Sydney, will make his grand slam debut after nearly upsetting world No.3 Dominic Thiem in the Brisbane qualifying.

The other wildcard recipients are Shang Juncheng and Mai Hontama from Asia-Pacific, Alize Cornet and Arthur Cazaux from France, and Patrick Kypson and McCartney Kessler from the US.

Shang, an 18-year-old Chinese sensation, made history last year by becoming the first Chinese man to win a main draw match at the Australian Open.

Hontama, a 24-year-old Japanese player, improved her ranking by almost 100 places in 2023. Cornet, a veteran Frenchwoman, will play her 19th consecutive Australian Open, while Cazaux, a 21-year-old Frenchman, will make his debut.

Kypson and Kessler are both promising young Americans who have shown potential on the ITF circuit.

The Australian Open 2024 will begin on January 14 and run until January 28, featuring a 15-day schedule for the first time. The entry lists are headlined by world No.1s Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek, who will face tough competition from a star-studded field of players.

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Full list of Wildcard entries

Men – James Duckworth, Marc Polmans, Adam Walton, Jason Kubler, James McCabe, Juncheng ‘Jerry’ Shang, Patrick Kypson, Arthur Cazaux.

Women – Caroline Wozniacki, Kimberly Birrell, Olivia Gadecski, Taylah Preston, Daria Saville, Mai Homtama, McCartney Kessler, Alize Corner.

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