LONDON: The World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and the last two Wimbledon winners, Marketa Vondrousova and Elena Rybakina lead the main draw entries for this year’s major tournament. The three players will be joined by the rest of the world’s Top 10 as of the May 20 edition of the WTA rankings.
Though only the defending champion Vondrousova and the winner of 2022, Rybakina, have won at Wimbledon before, the three are among the ten Grand Slam champions fielded. The only two players who withdrew before the registration deadline were Belinda Bencic and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, both of whom are expecting a child.
Notably, Karolina Muchova, a two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist, has also joined the competition. Following wrist surgery in February, the 2023 Roland Garros finalist and World No. 14 has not yet participated in any games this year.
With a protected ranking, nine players have gained straight entry into the main draw, moving the direct-entry cutoff to position 97. Among them were Ajla Tomljanovic (ranked No. 34), a two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist; Paula Badosa (ranked No. 36), a former World No. 2; and Bianca Andreescu (ranked No. 64), the 2019 US Open champion. Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion from Great Britain, is one of the six players on the main-draw alternates list who also entered using protected rankings.
The rest of the players to use injury-protected rankings to enter the tournament are Zhang Shuai (No.48), Irina-Camelia Begu (No.49), Lauren Davis (No.59), Kateryna Baindl (No.86), Wang Qiang (No.94) and Alison van Uytvanck (No.97).
Absent from the tour for nearly two full years, former No.12 Wang has played five tournaments this year so far after returning at the WTA 250 in Hua Hin the week following the Australian Open, four of which have been ITF tournaments in her native China.
Van Uytvanck is the last direct acceptance to the main draw, beneath this week’s true No.97, former Wimbledon quarterfinalist Jule Niemeier. (ANI)
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