Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep all set to start their 2022 season in Melbourne

Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep all set to start their 2022 season in Melbourne

Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep

With the 2022 season around the corner, tournaments are announcing the entry lists of players that will be featuring at the events. Emma Raducanu will be one of the most followed players next season after her heroics at the 2021 US Open and tennis fans will be glad to know that the young Brit will be back in action right from the first week of January.

Along with Emma, 4-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka and former World No. 1 Simona Halep will also be starting their respective seasons in Melbourne next month as both the players come from troubled 2021 seasons. While Simona was out with recurring injuries, Naomi battled mental health issues and was absent for the majority of the season.

While there are 2 tournaments scheduled in the first week, the final list of players will be decided in the last week of December that will give further clarity on where these champions will be playing next season along with the 41 other players who are all qualified into the main-draw of the WTA-250 events that are lined up between 3rd to 9th January.

FS Video

In the list released by WTA, 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, currently ranked World No. 11, is the highest-ranked player as players in the Top-10 are yet not added to the list and they are set to drafted when the final list releases a week before the tournament begins.

Emma Raducanu will play in just her 8th tournament on the Tour

Emma Raducanu and Simona Halep
Emma Raducanu and Simona Halep

Naomi will return to Tour action for the first time since her 3rd round defeat at the 2021 US Open where she lost to eventual runner-up Leylah Fernandez who is one of the absentees from the list and can be expected to start her season in Adelaide where a simultaneous event is scheduled.

As for Halep, the Romanian will hope for an injury-free season after she had to end her season at the 2021 Linz Open where she had to hand her compatriot Jaqueline Cristian a walkover in the semi-finals after having reached the finals of the 2021 Transylvania Open a week ago. Emma also played last in Linz losing in her first match itself and will now play at her 8th tournament on the Tour.

YouTube video

Also Read: Rafael Nadal’s first ATP tournament of 2022 confirmed!