Mari Osaka Gets Miami Open Wild Card
Tennis - Mari Osaka, the 22-year-old sister of Naomi Osaka, has received a wild card into next week's Miami Open, joining her more accomplished sister in the main draw of one of the more prestigious events on the tour. Mari Osaka is ranked No. 336 in the world and is yet to win a main draw match on the WTA Tour.
Other wild cards in the women's main draw include Serbia's Olga Danilovic, Americans Coco Gauff, Caty McNally, Whitney Osuigwe, Russian Natalia Vikhlysantseva and China's Xinyu Wang and Xiyu Wang.
This will be Osaka's first WTA singles main draw match, although she has played in the main draw of the WTA doubles tournaments on two prior occasions. In singles, she recently reached the final of the ITF Pro Circuit final in Florence, South Carolina where she lost to Canadian Bianca Andreescu.
Qualifying wild cards have gone to former World No.24 Christina McHale, former World No.58 Beatriz Haddad Maia, Allie Kiick, Zheng Qinwen, and India's Karmen Kaur Thandi. The tournament starts from March 18th and ends on March 31st.
The women's tournament has attracted a high level field with 32 of the Top 33 players in the world entered into the draw - only 27th ranked Maria Sharapova, a former World No. 1, has withdrawn from the event due to a right shoulder injury. Osaka heads the field followed by Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Sloane Stephens, Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2HyTePg
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