Tennis-Osaka, Andreescu and Wawrinka receive U.S. Open wildcards

(Reuters) - Former champions Naomi Osaka, Bianca Andreescu and Stan Wawrinka have received singles main draw wildcards into the U.S. Open, the United States Tennis Association said on Wednesday.

Japan's Osaka, who counts the 2018 and 2020 U.S. Opens among her four Grand Slam titles, returned to competition in January after the birth of her daughter and has advanced to the third round or better at four WTA 1000 events this season.

Canada's Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, returned to action this year after missing nine months due to a back injury and reached the French Open third round in her first event back.

For Swiss Wawrinka, who won the most recent of his three Grand Slam titles at the 2016 U.S. Open, the wildcard allows him to make his 72nd main draw appearance in one of the game's four blue-riband events, which puts him fifth on the all-time list.

Austrian Dominic Thiem, the 2020 U.S. Open champion who announced this year that he will retire following the 2024 season due to a wrist injury, was also given a wildcard.

The U.S. Open will held from Aug. 26-Sept. 8 in New York.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)