Emma Raducanu among four Grand Slam winners handed wild cards for Wimbledon
Emma Raducanu and fellow Grand Slam winners Naomi Osaka, Caroline Wozniacki and Angelique Kerber have been awarded wild cards for the main draw at Wimbledon.
Raducanu will return to the All England Club, where she made her breakthrough by reaching the fourth round in 2021, for the first time in two years following wrist and ankle surgery last year.
The former US Open champion reached the semi-finals of the Rothesay Open in Nottingham last week in an encouraging start to her grass-court campaign.
Former world No1s Osaka and Wozniacki will both play in the main draw at Wimbledon for the first time in five years after becoming mothers.
Former Wimbledon champion Kerber has also been handed an invite, along with British players Francesca Jones, Heather Watson and Yuriko Miyazaki.
In the men’s draw, the first batch of wild cards has gone to seven British players, including last year’s junior champion Henry Searle.
The 18-year-old from Wolverhampton, who became the first home winner of the boys’ singles since 1962, has made impressive strides in the senior game this season.
At the other end of the age spectrum, there will be a grand slam debut for 29-year-old Billy Harris, who spent the early part of his career travelling around Europe in a converted transit van and only won his first ATP Tour match last year.
Jacob Fearnley is rewarded for winning his first Challenger title in Nottingham last year with a Wimbledon singles debut, while Liam Broady, who defeated Casper Ruud to reach the third round last year, Arthur Fery, Paul Jubb and Jan Choinski have also been given wild cards.
Dominic Thiem, though, is set to have to go through qualifying if he is to make a final appearance at Wimbledon, with the Austrian announcing last month that he will retire at the end of the season because of wrist problems.
Junior stars Hannah Klugman, Mingge Xu and Mika Stojsavljevic will play in qualifying in the women’s singles, while 21-year-old Jack Pinnington Jones, who stunned Cameron Norrie in Nottingham last week, and 16-year-old Oliver Bonding are among those given wild cards into men’s qualifying.