Naomi Osaka Takes Wild Card into Abu Dhabi

The star-studded lineup features 10 of the WTA’s Top-20.

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday January 25, 2024

Earlier this month, Naomi Osaka talked often of wanting to play a lot of tournaments in 2024, so she could get comfortable on the court again after a 15-month layoff and the birth of her first child in July of 2023.

“I’m definitely thinking this year that I want to play a lot of tournaments,” she said prior to the Australian Open. “I might go back to the schedule I had when I was, like, 18 or something. I think right now I really need to play a lot of matches and it will probably condition me to at least have a really good end of the year.

“For me right now, my schedule’s kind of packed with the tournaments that I want to play.”

She wasn’t kidding.

Osaka has accepted a wild card into the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, joining a packed field that includes Ons Jabeur, Elena Rybakina, Maria Sakkari and Emma Raducanu. The WTA 500 tournament begins on Feb. 3.


Osaka went 1-2 in her first three matches of 2024, and lost in the first round at the Australian Open to Caroline Garcia.


Per the WTA, 10 of the WTA’s Top 20 are going to be in attendance. Here’s the latest entry list:

Elena Rybakina
Ons Jabeur  
Maria Sakkari  
Barbora Krejcikova
Beatriz Haddad Maia  
Jeļena Ostapenko  
Liudmila Samsonova  
Daria Kasatkina  
Veronika Kudermetova  
Caroline Garcia
Magda Linette   
Sorana Cirstea   
Anastasia Potapova  
Anhelina Kalinina   
Jasmine Paolini   
Emma Navarro  
Lesia Tsurenko  
Wild cards: Naomi Osaka, Emma Raducanu

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