NEW YORK – Past US Open champions Kim Clijsters and Andy Murray received wild-card invitations for the Grand Slam tournament Thursday.
The US Tennis Association gave all of its other wild cards for singles play to Americans.
Clijsters is a four-time major champion and former No. 1 who came out of retirement this year after already being elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The US Open — which she won in 2005, 2009 and 2010 — would mark the 37-year-old Belgian’s first Grand Slam appearance since a second-round loss at Flushing Meadows in 2012.
Murray, a 33-year-old from Britain who also has been ranked No. 1, won the first of his three Grand Slam titles at the 2012 US Open. He is working his way back from two hip operations and has not played in an official event since the Davis Cup last November.
The WTA and ATP tours were suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. The women’s tour resumed this week in Palermo, Italy; the first men’s tournament is later this month.
The US Open is scheduled to start August 31 without spectators.
Other women’s wild-card recipients:
Usue Arconada, CiCi Bellis, Francesca Di Lorenzo, Caroline Dolehide, Ann Li, Robin Montgomery and Whitney Osuigwe.
The other men’s wild cards went to:
Ulises Blanch, Maxime Cressy, Sebastian Korda, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, Michael Mmoh, Brandon Nakashima and JJ Wolf.
Associated Press (AP)