Venus Williams and former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki are among the eight players who have been given wildcards into the 2023 US Open women’s singles main draw.

As part of reciprocal wildcard agreements with Tennis Australia and the French Tennis Federation, the former Grand Slam winners will be joined by Australia’s Storm Hunter and France’s Fiona Ferro.

Also going straight into the main draw will be home players Ashlyn Krueger, Robin Montgomery, Kayla Day, and Clervie Ngounoue.

At Flushing Meadows, where she won consecutive championships in 2000 and 2001, Venus Williams will make her 24th main draw appearance this season.

The now-43-year-old former No 1 returned to the court during the grass-court season after missing nearly six months due to injuries this year. Williams, who can never be written off, won her first Top 20 match since 2019 recently at the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati by defeating Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets.

The 33-year-old Wozniacki will play in her first Grand Slam tournament since quitting tennis to start a family following the 2020 Australian Open. The former world No 1 and Australian Open winner, who has two young children, James, 6 months, and Olivia, 2 years old, is back on the courts where she was runner-up in 2009 and 2014.

The new generation is swiftly moving up the ranks and is ready to leave their imprint, so this year’s wildcard selections aren’t  only established legends.

• A Tell /Agencies report