Bianca Andreescu and Caroline Wozniacki will play at the 2024 Cincinnati Open because they're among the players awarded wild card entries into the WTA 1000 event.
The Cincinnati Open is traditionally one of the strongest events of the year because most of the best players compete at it. It's the final big test for most ahead of the US Open, not only because the courts play similarly but also because the tournament is held just ahead of the season's last major.
It allows players to see where they stand ahead of the season's last Grand Slam. That's why signing up for lower-ranked players to play at that event is not easy.
It often has a packed draw, so players need to fight their way through the qualifying without a high enough ranking. We know from earlier in the year that Wozniacki is not a player who likes to play in the qualifying, considering her legacy in tennis, and luckily, she won't have to do that in Cincinnati.
The former number one was recognized by the organizers for her contribution to tennis as they awarded her a wild card for the main draw of the tournament, running from August 13th to 19th, sparing her the qualifying in that way.
She had some great showings at the event in the past, such as the semi-final in 2014, but she was never able to win the trophy in Cincinnati.
Even so, the Danish player got the wild card, allowing her to enter the main draw without having to play in the qualifying. She will be hoping that her stay will go better than last year when she lost to Varvara Gracheva in two sets.
Another player who got the wild card is Bianca Andreescu, who hopes to keep building her form ahead of the US Open. The Canadian doesn't have any history at the event, as she only played it once in 2021.
That experience ended in the second round with a loss to Karolina Muchova, but she hopes that this new chance will give her an opportunity to do much better.
She has played at a really high level at times since her comeback a few weeks ago, as she made the final in Den Bosch and played well at the Olympics recently as well.
For fans, it will be great to see both of these players, as they deserved the wild card because of their tennis legacy. Wozniacki might not challenge for the trophies anymore, but she gave tennis a lot, and she deserves chances to play some main-draw events while she's still around.
Andreescu, similarly, is a player who can always create a lot of mayhem in the draw, especially during the North American hard-court swing. Neither would be guaranteed to make it through the qualifying, as the competition is often fierce in the qualifying rounds.
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