Thiem, Raducanu headline Australian Open qualifying field

MELBOURNE (Agencies): Former U.S. Open champions Dominic Thiem and Emma Raducanu will headline the qualifying field for the Australian Open as they look to reignite their careers in 2024 following struggles with injuries. Thiem broke the Grand Slam stranglehold of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic by winning the 2020 U.S. Open but a wrist injury the following year sidelined him for months, while a series of other fitness issues saw his ranking slide to number 352. The 30-year-old Austrian, now ranked 98th, won his first match at a Grand Slam since 2021 in New York in August before crashing out in the second round. Thiem, who made the Melbourne Park final in 2020, can still gain direct entry into the main draw of the tournament if one player pulls out. Raducanu missed out on an Australian Open wildcard and will now have to take a similar path as her run 2021 Flushing Meadows run when she became the first player in the Open Era to win a major after beginning in the qualifying rounds. The 21-year-old Briton, who is now ranked number 299, will gear up for the first Grand Slam of the year by playing at the Auckland Classic having fought her way back to fitness following operations on both wrists and an ankle in May. Raducanu is five spots outside the main draw cut-off. The qualifying tournament will begin on Jan. 8 while the main draw is from Jan. 14-28.