Kim Clijsters and Andy Murray, both former world number one players and US Open champions, have received wild card entries to this Grand Slam in Flushing Meadows which is set to begin from August 31.
The three-time US Open champion, Clijsters, will be looking to repeat her 2009 heroics when she had won the tournament after being a wild-card entrant following her return to professional tennis. Clijsters had earlier retired during which she became a mother.
However, after embarking on a successful return to the court, Clijsters went on to win the 2010 US Open as well before winning the 2011 Australian Open. She would later become the first mother in WTA history to hold the world No. 1 ranking.
She bade adieu to Tennis once again in 2013 before coming out of her retirement for the second time in his career earlier in 2020. Clijsters will be playing the US Open for the first time since she stepped away from the game following the 2012 tournament. She is currently unranked.
Murray, who is currently ranked 129, had narrowly missed a direct entry into this year’s US Open. However, with the wild card, he is set to play his first Grand Slam since his surgery last year and first US Open since 2018. The 33-year-old former number one had won the first of his three Majors title at the 2012 US Open.
Murray was also handed wild cards for this month’s relocated Western & Southern Open, the warm-up tournament ahead of the US Open. The two New York tournaments will be Murray’s first competitive action of 2020 as he continues to work his way back from hip surgeries in 2018-19.
Murrray missed the US Open in 2017 and 2019 through injury, and seriously considered retiring from the game after the 2019 Australian Open.
But 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.