Venus Williams Leads List of Women’s US Open Wild Cards

Venus Williams will return to Flushing Meadows this month.

The USTA today announced that seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams, former world No. 1 and two-time US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki, and Americans Ashlyn Krueger, Robin Montgomery, Kayla Day and Clervie Ngounoue will receive singles main draw wild cards into the 2023 US Open, as will France’s Fiona Ferro and Australian Storm Hunter, as part of reciprocal agreements. 

The 2023 US Open will be played August 28-September 10 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. 

Williams, 43, has won seven Grand Slam singles titles including back-to-back titles at the US Open in 2000 and 2001. She returned to competition this summer after missing nearly six months due to injury and scored her first Top 20 win since 2019 this week at the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati.

 Wozniacki, 33, is a two-time US Open finalist. The former world No. 1 and 2018 Australian Open champion returned to competitive tennis this summer. She retired following the 2020 Australian Open in order to start a family, and she and her husband, former NBA player David Lee, now have a two-year-old daughter, Olivia, and an eight-month-old son, James. She won her first match back last week at the WTA 1000 event in Montreal. 

Krueger, 19, will be making her third straight appearance in the US Open main draw after earning a wild card in 2021 as the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s singles champion and qualifying last year. She won the biggest professional title of her career in June at the WTA 125 event in Gaiba, Italy, which propelled her to a career-best ranking of No. 108 the following week. She is currently ranked No. 121. 

Montgomery, 18, reached a career-best ranking of No. 143 last month and is now ranked No. 150. She’ll be making only her second Grand Slam main draw appearance after receiving a wild card into the 2020 US Open as a 16-year-old. She swept the girls’ singles and doubles titles at the 2021 US Open, winning the doubles crown with Krueger. She won the biggest singles title of her career in May at an ITF World Tennis Tour W60 event in France. 

Day, 23, is currently ranked No. 96 and earned her wild card by winning the US Open Wild Card Challenge. The former world No. 1 junior and 2016 US Open girls’ singles champion has enjoyed a career resurgence over the past year-and-a-half culminating with a career-best ranking of No. 94 last month. She qualified and reached the third round of the French Open earlier this year, the best Grand Slam result of her career, and has won two ITF World Tennis Tour W100 titles this season. 

Ngounoue, a 17-year-old from Washington, D.C., who currently resides in Orlando and trains at the USTA National Campus, earned her wild card by winning the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s National Championships on Sunday. Earlier this summer Ngounoue won the girls’ singles title at Wimbledon, which was her third junior Grand Slam title (2023 French Open doubles; 2022 Australian Open doubles). She’ll be making her Grand Slam singles main draw debut. 

Ferro, 26, has been ranked as high as No. 39 and owns two WTA Tour titles. She earned her wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and FFT where wild cards between the US Open and Roland Garros are exchanged. 

Hunter, 29, is ranked No. 165 in singles and No. 4 in doubles. She’s the reigning US Open mixed doubles champion and earlier this year earned her first Grand Slam singles victory at the French Open. She earned her wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia where wild cards between the US Open and Australian Open are exchanged. 

The USTA also announced the American women receiving wild cards into the US Open Qualifying tournament, held August 22-25 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center: Liv Hovde, 17, the 2021 Wimbledon girls’ singles champion; Katrina Scott, 19, who reached the second round of the 2020 US Open as a 16-year-old; Makenna Jones, 25, a former All-American at North Carolina who has won nine (2 singles, 7 doubles) ITF World Tennis Tour titles this year; McCartney Kessler, 24, a former All-American at Florida; Mary Stoiana, 20, a rising junior at Texas A&M who was named the 2023 SEC Player of the Year; Valerie Glozman, 16, the No. 1-ranked 18-and-under player in the USTA junior rankings; Fiona Crawley, 21, a rising senior at North Carolina who won the 2023 NCAA doubles title and was named the 2023 ITA National Player of the Year; Chloe Beck, 21, the 2019 French Open girls’ doubles champion and All-American at Duke; and Katherine Hui, 18, the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s singles runner-up.