Former world number one Andy Murray has been awarded a wild card entry into the upcoming edition of the French Open, set to be played from September 27.

Murray was give a wild card entry for the recently-concluded US Open as well. In what was his first Grand Slam appearance after his hip injury, the Brit had registered a brilliant comeback victory in the first round before bowing out in the next round.

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The four times Grand Slam champion rallied to win 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 against 49th-ranked Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka before losing to 15th seed Canadian Felix Auger-Allassime.

Earlier, before the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a standstill, Murray had returned to the court after suffering another injury-enforced gap due to his hip injury.

After undergoing one of the major surgeries of his career, the former Wimbledon Champion marked his return to the tour in August last year in the Cincinnati Open, where he lost in the first round. Apart from this, he also played at seven other tournaments — including the Davis Cup in Spain last month — to finish the year with an 11-7 win-loss record.

However, he won his first singles title since 2017 at Antwerp in October 2019 in the European Open beating Stan Wawrinka. But his joy did not last long as he was forced to go out for another three months due to injury which cost him his participation in this year’s Australian Open.

Meanwhile, this year’s French Open will see seven other men’s singles players alongside Murray to enter the clay-court Major with a wild card. In women’s singles, Eugenie Bouchard and Tsvetana Pironkova have also received wild cards into the main draw at the Roland Garros.

The French Open was originally scheduled to start in May but had to be moved back because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Even though the coronavirus crisis is looming large across the globe and major sporting events are taking place behind closed doors, organisers of the Roland Garros have informed that a total of 11,500 spectators will be allowed per day during the event.

This year’s French Open will be divided into three zones based on the three main courts, with 5,000 people each for the Philippe Chatrier and Suzanne Lenglen courts. The zone surrounding the third biggest court will host a maximum of 1,500 spectators a day.