Emma Raducanu gets Wimbledon wildcard nod along with three Grand Slam winners, but former champion snubbed

Emma Raducanu will feature at Wimbledon for the first time since 2022 after she was awarded a wildcard entry alongside fellow Grand Slam winners Naomi Osaka, Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki.

However, the name of another former Grand Slam winner in Simona Halep – who won the Wimbledon title in 2019 – was absent from the list.

2021 US Open winner Raducanu missed the entire grass-court season in 2023 after undergoing surgery on both her wrists and her one ankle and she only returned to action at the start of this campaign.

However, she has not played regularly as she has missed big tournaments – including the French Open – in order to keep herself fit for the grass campaign.

She reached the semi-final of the Nottingham Open last week and rose 44 places in the WTA Rankings to No 165, but her ranking is still not good enough for a direct entry and qualifying was her next option.

However, she won’t have to go through qualifying as she has been handed one of eight wildcards for the women’s main draw.

Raducanu has opted to skip this week’s Birmingham Open, but she has also received a wildcard entry for next week’s Easbourne International and she is upbeat about her form.

“I feel really good, after the match I went and did intervals. I feel strong, I feel like I could play tomorrow, I am just shaking off a bit of a bug and cold but otherwise physically I am great,” she said after losing to Katie Boulter in Nottingham.

“For me it was a good start to grass court season, it was nice to get some matches.”

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Former world No 1s Osaka and Wozniacki will also line up in the main draw at Wimbledon as they have also been awarded wildcards along with the British trio of Fran Jones, Lily Miyazaki and Heather Watson.

Four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka will play at Wimbledon for the first time since 2019 as the tournament was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic while she skipped the 2021 and 2022 editions while last year she missed the entire season as she was on maternity leave.

Three-time major winner Kerber also missed the 2023 tennis season as shey gave birth to her first child in February last year.

Wozniacki, meanwhile, is also back after a five-year absence, but for a different reason as she retired at the beginning of 2020. She then came out of retirement during the second half of the 2023 season.

Former world No 1 Halep, though, didn’t receive a wildcard despite returning to action earlier this year after she was cleared to play again following her initial doping ban.

The Romanian received a wildcard entry for the Miami Open, but was then overlooked for the French Open and now Wimbledon.

There is still one wildcard on offer for the women’s draw with the All England Club set to confirm the name of the player in the coming days.