Trio of Grand Slam Champions Awarded Western & Southern Open Wild Cards

The Western & Southern Open player field gained three more Grand Slam champions after awarding main draw wild cards to 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens and three-time Major winner Stan Wawrinka. The wild card recipients join the player field set to appear in Mason this August.

With these additions, the collective number of Grand Slam titles in the men’s and women’s fields increases to 17, for a total of 49 Majors won by the Western & Southern Open competitors. Wawrinka is the seventh player in this year’s tournament field to have won multiple Major titles, joined by Novak Djokovic (23), Iga Swiatek (4), Andy Murray (3), Victoria Azarenka (2), Petra Kvitova (2) and Carlos Alcaraz (2). These players will all take part in the Western & Southern Open Aug. 12-20 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason.

Andreescu won the 2019 US Open defeating Serena Williams in the final. In the same year, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 and was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year. Despite missing the 2020 season due to a knee injury, she reached the final of Miami in 2021. In 2022 she recorded two wins over top 10 players and this year, Andreescu defeated two Grand Slam champions in Miami and reached the third round at both the French Open and Wimbledon. This year will mark her second time competing in Cincinnati. She is currently ranked No. 44.

The 2023 Western & Southern Open will be Stephens’ 12th appearance in Cincinnati, tying the record for active players. In 2017, Stephens returned from injury ranked No. 151 and was awarded a wild card into the Western & Southern Open. She defeated four players in the top 40 to reach the semifinals before going on to win the 2017 US Open. In the past year she has defeated three Western & Southern Open winners – defending champion Carolina Garcia in Guadalajara last October, 2016 champion Karolina Pliskova en route to the fourth round of the French Open, and 2006 champion Vera Zvonareva on the way to the semifinals in Morocco. Having ranked as high as No. 3 in the world, she is currently No. 40.

Wawrinka, winner of the 2014 Australian Open, 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open, is one of only 12 men who won a Grand Slam title between 2004 and 2023. He is also one of only five to win three or more Major titles in that timeframe. Wawrinka was out with a left foot injury for nearly a year in 2021, causing him to fall out of the top 300 in the rankings, but since has worked his way back to world No. 72. This year he has reached two quarterfinals and the fourth round at Indian Wells with a victory over world No. 8 Holger Rune. In Cincinnati, he was a semifinalist in 2012 and is a three-time quarterfinalist. At 38 years old, Wawrinka is the oldest player in the men’s field. Andreescu, Stephens and Wawrinka join previously announced wild cards JJ Wolf, Caroline Wozniacki and Peyton Stearns. Two additional men’s wild cards and one women’s will be awarded.