New York, Aug 15: Lleyton Hewitt and James Blake will receive wild cards into the U.S. Open.
The U.S. Tennis Association announced its eight men's wild cards Tuesday. Hewitt is a two-time major champion, winning the 2001 U.S. Open, but at age 31 the Australian has fallen to 134th in the world.
Blake has twice reached the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows, but the 32-year-old American's ranking was also too low to automatically qualify for the year's last Grand Slam, which starts Aug. 27.
Americans receiving wild cards were Steve Johnson, Dennis Novikov, Jack Sock, Denis Kudla and Rajeev Ram. France's Guillaume Rufin also got a wild card.
Hewitt and Rufin were invited through reciprocal arrangements with the Australian and French Opens.
