Thiem, Venus, Kenin among US Open wild cards

Tennis stars return to final Grand Slam of the year in New York after long injury layoffs

NEW YORK:

Dominic Thiem, the 2020 champion, and Grand Slam title winners Venus Williams and Sofia Kenin were among those named Wednesday as wild cards for the US Open main draw.

The US Tennis Association announced the recipients ahead of the August 29 start of the year's final Grand Slam tournament at New York.

Austrian Thiem, the former world number three now ranked 228th, has returned to competition after a long layoff due to a wrist injury.

Williams, 42, has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including back-to-back US Open titles in 2000 and 2001. She returned to competition after missing nearly a year due to injury.

Her sister Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion who turns 41 next month, has hinted at retirement after the US Open.

Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, has been ranked as high as fourth in the world but is recently back from an injury layoff and now ranks 412th.

US women's wild cards along with Kenin and Venus Williams included CoCo Vandeweghe, Elizabeth Mandlik – the daughter of 1985 US Open champion Hana Mandlikova – Peyton Stearns and Eleana Yu.

Other women's wild cards went to France's Harmony Tan and Australian Jaimee Fourlis.

American men's wild cards included Sam Querrey, Emilio Nava, JJ Wolf, Ben Shelton and Learner Tien.

Other men's wild cards went to France's Ugo Humbert and Australian Rinky Hijikata.