Emma Raducanu will go through qualifying for the 2024 Australian Open; She went through qualifying en route to winning the US Open; Sky Sports will show more than 80 tournaments and 4,000 matches - including both season-ending finals and all Masters 1000 events
Saturday 23 December 2023 07:26, UK
Former US Open women's champion Emma Raducanu is part of the qualifying field for the 2024 Australian Open.
Raducanu famously went through qualifying en route to winning the 2021 US Open. She was the first player in the Open Era to begin in qualifying and win a Grand Slam event.
Former US Open men's champion Dominic Thiem is also part of the qualifying field at this point. He won the 2020 US Open.
Raducanu has fallen on hard times since her breakthrough victory in New York and she underwent wrist and ankle surgeries this year as her ranking dropped to No 299 in the world.
However, she has a special ranking of No 103 due to her absences from the tour, and that leaves her five spots outside the main draw cutoff line.
The US Open remains the lone title the Brit has won. Her highest ranking was No 10 in July 2022.
Raducanu plans to play in the Auckland Classic, one of the tournaments leading up to the Australian Open.
Thiem, 30, is currently ranked 98th, just one spot off the cutoff for the men's draw. He can move into the field if just one player withdraws.
The Austrian was as high as No 3 in the world in March 2020 and his career reached new heights with the US Open title.
But midway through the 2021 season, Thiem sustained a serious wrist injury that led to him missing four of the next five Grand Slam events. He has since been on the comeback trail and showed progress this year.
Other men in the qualifying field include Belgium's David Goffin (No 111), Argentina's Diego Schwartzman (No 114), France's Benoit Paire (No 117) and American Maxime Cressy (No 126).
Also part of the women's qualifying field are Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska (No 102), Italy's Sara Errani (No 105), France's Alize Cornet (No 117) and Estonia's Kaia Kanepi (No 168).
Qualifying begins January 8 and the main-draw event is January 14-28.
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