Bianca Andreescu joins Venus Williams as ATX Open Austin wildcard with Jennifer Brady seemingly likely to receive spot
WTATuesday, 17 February 2026 at 11:30
Bianca Andreescu has spent the last few months playing smaller tour tenis winning titles and matches as she aims to gain confidence again as well as ranking points amid her slide down after constant injury problems.
But it seems like she is set ahead of the Sunshine Double to play at least some tennis on the main WTA Tour as she plots her course back as she was announced through the tournament Instagram to be playing the ATX Open Austin which begins on February 23.
Andreescu was initially confirmed to be playing in qualifying as confusion reigned around social media with a press release saying that her, Taylor Townsend, Caroline Dolehide and Yuan Yue would headline. But that was since changed it seems as Jelena Ostapenko who was initially awarded a spot by the tournament has been removed from the tournament players page making it seem likely that she has decided against playing in Austin next week and Andreescu has been bumped up.
Venus Williams already has a spot in the main draw as the other confirmed wildcard and it seems that a former Grand Slam finalist who like Andreescu is on the comeback trail will also play Austin once confirmed and that is Jennifer Brady.
Joining the dots as Brady likely to seal wildcard
Brady like Andreescu has been playing smaller level tennis as a way back in albeit of course the former Australian Open runner-up who now inhabits more of a sphere in podcasting now has been out for a lot longer with lingering injuries being an issue.
Brady has been hosting The Players Box with Jessica Pegula, Desirae Krawczyk and Madison Keys becoming a popular addition to the podcasting rotation alongside such podcasts as Served with Andy Roddick and now Love-All with Kim Clijsters on the same network. But Brady of course would prefer to not be the only one in the line-up to be off the court and not playing.
Jessica Pegula headlines Austin.
She has seemingly let slip that she will play Austin on Instagram and with her not in the qualifying press release it is likely that she has received one of the final two wildcards for the tournament alongside Venus Williams and Bianca Andreescu.
It also makes sense given that Jessica Pegula, her podcast partner and close friend is playing Austin with Iva Jovic who ironically will appear on Players Box this week also headlining the field that includes McCartney Kessler, Xinyu Wang, Peyton Stearns, Ashlyn Krueger and Eva Lys. Lys latterly has been out with injury since the Australian Open so adding Venus Williams, Andreescu and Brady does bring some real star power to the event.
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