Naomi Osaka, Rican Monica Puig receive wildcards at Madrid Open

MADRID: Four-time major champion Japan's Naomi Osaka and former Olympic gold medalist Puerto Rican Monica Puig are among the five players who have received main-draw wildcards for the 2022 Madrid Open, which begins on April 28. The former World No 1 Naomi Osaka was a quarterfinalist at the WTA 1000 tournament in 2019. After playing a limited number of matches in 2021 while dealing with mental health struggles, the 24-year-old gave notice of her resurgence with a run to the Miami final last month.

Following her loss to Iga Swiatek there, Osaka declared her intention of committing to the clay season and using that as a springboard to chase down a return to No 1.

On the other hand, Puig, whose run at Rio 2016 made for a memorable Olympic underdog story, has been sidelined by injury for most of the past three years. The Puerto Rican has undergone three surgeries since 2019 - the first on her elbow and two on her shoulder -- and was unable to defend her gold medal at last year's Tokyo Olympic Games.

Puig has not competed since Roland Garros 2020 and last won a match at Luxembourg 2019.

The remaining three main-draw wildcards have been awarded to rising teenage talents: Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk (19 year), China's Zheng Qinwen (19 year) and the Czech Republic's Linda Fruhvirtova (16 year), a WTA report said on Wednesday. IANS

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