MELBOURNE, Australia — Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep, working her means again from a drug suspension, and Corridor of Famer Lleyton Hewitt’s 16-year-old son Cruz had been among the many gamers awarded wild-card entries Wednesday for Australian Open qualifying subsequent month.
Halep, a 33-year-old from Romania, was the runner-up at Melbourne Park in 2018 and gained main titles at the French Open later that 12 months and at Wimbledon in 2019. She has been ranked as excessive as No. 1 however is at the moment 877th and hasn’t performed at any Grand Slam event since 2022 after lacking all tournaments for 1 1/2 years due to a doping case.
Cruz Hewitt is ranked outdoors the highest 1,000. His father, who gained two main trophies and reached No. 1 within the rankings, made his Australian Open debut in 1997 at age 15 through a qualifying wild card. Lleyton Hewitt retired in 2016, was elected to the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame in 2021 and is at the moment Australia’s Davis Cup captain.
Different males who received wild playing cards for the Jan. 6-9 qualifying occasion embody 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Chris Eubanks and former prime 25 gamers Dan Evans and Bernard Tomic, whereas the ladies’s group consists of Paris Olympics doubles gold medalist and 2012 French Open singles runner-up Sara Errani and prime 20 gamers Petra Martic and Ana Konjuh.
Principal-draw motion begins in Melbourne on Jan. 12.
