Who are the tennis players who will use the protected ranking to compete in the Australian Open?

While the players take advantage of the break to rest, shuffle and hit again, the Australian Open The countdown to its next edition begins little by little, which will be held from January 12 to 26, a period in which the Italian Jannik Sinner (1st) and the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (1st) will try to revalidate the trophy raised in 2024.

After officially revealing his entry listwhich guaranteed a ticket to 15 South American representatives in the main draw, the first Grand Slam of the season will also grant them the possibility of directly enter 12 players through protected rankingwho for different reasons recently left the circuit, lowered their respective positions in the classification and did not make the final cut.

This way, six men will take advantage of the resource in question, generally implemented by not participating due to injury in events for at least six months, to avoid the previous phase and access the main draw masculine, following Spanish Pablo Carreno Busta (196°), from the local Nick Kyrgiosfrom the Americans Reilly Opelka (293°) and Jenson Brooksbyfrom Japanese Kei Nishikori (106°) and Swiss Dominic Stricker (301°).

On a feminine level they will also be six beneficiaries in Melbourne Park, where the Swiss Belinda Bencic (481st), the American Caty McNally (543rd), the Austrian Julia Grabher (486th), the British Jodie Burrage (179th), the Chinese Saisai Zheng (696th) and the Montenegrin Danka Kovinic (1,325th) will battle the best in the world.