Two-time champion Naomi Osaka and other past US Open winners Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem and Bianca Andreescu were given wild cards into this year’s tournament.

Osaka won the first of her four grand slam titles at Flushing Meadows in 2018 and took the title again in 2020. But like the other past champions given wild cards by the US Tennis Association, she has missed significant time in recent seasons and was not ranked highly enough to qualify directly for the tournament.

Osaka returned to the WTA Tour this season after giving birth last year to a daughter, but is still searching for the form that led her to No. 1 in the rankings and made her one of the most dominant players on hard courts, having also won the Australian Open twice.

Osaka, who also left the tour for mental health reasons, lost in qualifying for this week’s Cincinnati Open. She wrote afterward in an Instagram post that it was a strange feeling “missing balls that I shouldn’t miss, hitting balls softer than I remember I
used to.”

Andreescu, a Canadian who beat Serena Williams for the 2019 US Open title, missed nine months last year with a back injury before returning to tour at the French Open.

Thiem will get a chance to play a final grand slam, having announced earlier this year he would retire following the season.

The 30-year-old Austrian won his lone major title at the 2020 US Open, but has battled a wrist injury for much of the last three years.