Ashleigh Barty news: World No 1 confirmed on Miami Open entry list

WTA Tour
Ashleigh Barty

World No 1 Ashleigh Barty heads a star-studded field for the 2022 Miami Open, with the Australian confirmed to return to defend her title.

Barty will be chasing a third win a third straight title in Miami.

The third WTA 1000 event of the season has received entries from 39 of the top 40 women’s singles players in the world with Barty at the head, seeded first.

The Miami Open announced that Naomi Osaka receives a main-draw wild card as the Former World No.1 and four-time Grand Slam champion seeks her first trip to the WTA 1000 event’s final.

World No 2 Barbora Krejcikova is also on a Miami Open entry list that includes the rest of the current Top 5 in Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and Anett Kontaveit.

The trio of Sabalenka, Swiatek and Kontaveit pose a serious threat to Barty’s title defence, with all three active and racking up tour wins while the Aussie has been out.

Reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu has entered, although injury has cast doubts on her entry and caused some to question her training regimen.

Coco Gauff joins Raducanu and Canada’s Leylah Fernandez as Top 25-ranked teens in the Miami Open field.

Danielle Collins is the highest ranked American slated to appear in Miami.

Barty (2019 and 2021) is joined by Sloane Stephens (2018), and three-time champion Victoria Azarenka (2009, 2011, and 2016) as the former Miami Open winners in the field.

The WTA’s top competitors will all be aiming to emulate Former World No 1 Azarenka and pull off the so-called “Sunshine Double”. Azarenka won Indian Wells and the Miami Open in 2016.

The Miami Open will also play host to one of the WTA Tour’s most entertaining players at the moment Jelena Ostapenko.

Ostapenko made a run all the way to the final in 2018 only to fall to hometown hero (Almost) Sloane Stephens.

Not to be discounted is former World No 1 and Miami Open runner-up Karolína Plíšková.

World No 6 Paula Badosa and World No 9 Garbine Muguruza head a strong Spanish contingent.

Ashleigh Barty Emma Raducanu Naomi Osaka

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