Venus Williams, Heather Watson, Elina Svitolina handed wild card in Wimbledon Championships

London [UK], June 21 : Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, Heather Watson and Elina Svitolinahas are amongst seven players who have been given wild card entry to the Wimbledon Championships 2023.

With Williams seven players are named on the wild card list for the ladies' singles. Former British No 1 Heather Watson and Ukraine's two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist Elina Svitolina are mentioned in the list.

According to Wimbledon's official website, Wild cards are players whose world ranking is not high enough to qualify automatically for The Championships but who are accepted into the main Championships draw at the discretion of the Committee.

Wild cards are usually offered on the basis of past performance at Wimbledon or to increase British interest. Wild cards have been allocated since 1977 and from 2003 some singles wild cards have been determined by competition.

https://twitter.com/Wimbledon/status/1671448412917563392

Williams has played some promising games in recent seasons, but she was out of action for six months due to a sustained hamstring injury in Auckland during the first week of the year.

Returning to the clay after a long break, Svitolina reached to quarter-finals at the French Open last month. She was out of action as she gave birth to a daughter last October.

Katie Boulter, Jodie Burrage, Harriet Dart, Katie Swan and Watson are amongst seven players who are handed wild card entries in the Wimbledon.