 "Rafael Nadal speaks during a press conference after his match against Leo Borg, at the Nordea Open in Bastad. AP")
Four-time champion Rafael Nadal was among those on the main draw entry lists for the 2024 US Open after missing the event in three of the last four years.
The 38-year-old has a protected ranking of ninth to put himself into the field for the Flushing Meadows event, which begins August 26.
Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, played his first singles match since May 27 on Tuesday, beating Leo Borg 6-3, 6-4 at the Nordea Open in Bastad. Nadal had not played since losing in the first round to Alexander Zverev at the French Open.
Nadal has played the US Open only once, in 2022, since winning his fourth New York hardcourt crown in 2019.
He was among 14 players to claim a main-draw spot with a protected ranking.
Nadal won the 2010 US Open to complete a career Grand Slam and added three more titles in New York in 2013, 2017 and 2019. He reached the fourth round in 2022 but has played in only two Slams since, never going past the second round.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, this year’s Australian Open champion, and top-ranked Iga Swiatek, who captured her third consecutive French Open title in June, lead the men’s and women’s fields.
Djokovic, Gauff at No.2
Defending champions and world number twos Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff are also in the lineup.
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, the 2022 US Open winner, is coming off French Open and Wimbledon title runs and could become the first player since Nadal in 2010 to win three in a row in the same year.
Reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, the 2023 US Open runner-up who missed Wimbledon due to injury, and Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova are also in the field.
American Reilly Opelka, also in through a protected ranking, is set to play his first Grand Slam tournament since 2022 due to injuries.
Three other past US Open champions were on the main draw lists – Daniil Medvedev on the men’s side plus Sloane Stephens and Emma Raducanu on the women’s.
Raducanu’s run to the fourth round at Wimbledon secured her a spot in the world rankings top 100 and a place in the US Open.
Among past US Open winners who did not make the direct acceptance list are Bianca Andreescu, Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka for the women and Andy Murray, Dominic Thiem and Stan Wawrinka for the men.
All three women missed last year’s US Open, Andreescu due to injury and Osaka and Kerber on maternity leave, and all exhausted their protected rankings for majors earlier this year.
Osaka ranks sixth on the women’s alternate list. Wawrinka is men’s seventh alternate with Murray the 26th alternate and Thiem, who says he plans to retire after 2024, the 36th alternate.
The US Open field will also include 16 wild cards, eight each in the men’s and women’s field, and 16 qualifiers each for the men and women.
(with inputs from AFP)