Wawrinka and Azarenka given US wild cards

FORMER grand slam champions Stan Wawrinka and Victoria Azarenka have been awarded wild cards into this year’s US Open.

Wawrinka, who won his third slam title at Flushing Meadows two years ago, has found life difficult since coming back from knee surgery in January and missed out on automatic entry with his ranking down at 151.

Azarenka returned to the tour last summer after having her first child but a custody battle with the father of her toddler son Leo left her unable to take him outside America and she did not play a tournament between Wimbledon last year and Indian Wells in March.

The Belarusian, twice an Australian Open champion, has been unable to reach her previous heights and was also ranked outside the cut-off for the year’s final grand slam, although she has since climbed back inside the top 100.

Russian veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova, the champion in New York 14 years ago, has also been given a wild card.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic overcame home favourite Steve Johnson, Wawrinka beat Diego Schwartzman in the first round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

No 10 seed Djokovic faced a tough opponent in American Johnson, needing nine match points to advance to the second round 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).

Serena Williams made short work of her firstround match as she dismissed opponent Daria Gavrilova in little more than an hour.

The former world No 1 had pulled out of last week’s Rogers Cup in Montreal, citing “personal reasons”.