Venus Williams added to Western & Southern Open tourney field
Jul. 31—Seven-time Grand Slam champ Venus Williams has been awarded a wild card for the Western & Southern Open, the tournament announced today.
Williams joins a women's field featuring the world's top 39 WTA players and four other wild cards. Williams' addition means there are 12 Grand Sam major winners and five current or former world No. 1s in the tournament, set for Aug. 12-20 at Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason.
Williams, 43, had 49 career singles title, four Olympic gold medals and is a former world No. 1.
This will be Williams' 10th singles appearance in Mason. She was a semifinalist in 2012 and reached the quarterfinals in 2019.
Eight players will join the women's field from the qualifying tournament Aug. 12-13.
The combined men's and women's tournament will feature 18 Grand Slam champions who have won a collective 56 Grand Slam titles, nine current or former world No. 1s, and 11 past Western & Southern Open champs.
The Western & Southern Open is one of only five events in the world to host an ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 tournament in the same week at the same venue, joining Madrid, Miami, Rome and Indian Wells, California.
TCaroline Garcia and Borna Coric are the defending singles champions. The doubles titles were claimed by Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko and Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.
Tickets for single sessions to the 2023 tournament are on sale now at wsopen.com and Ticketmaster.com. Multi-day ticket packages are sold out.
