The Australian Open, which begins next month in Melbourne, will award a wild card to Victoria Azarenka, a former No. 1 player whose ranking has dropped to No. 210.
A two-time Australian Open women’s singles champion from Belarus, Azarenka has played only two official tournaments in the past 19 months.
Azarenka gave birth to her first child, a son named Leo, in December 2016 and returned to the circuit at a grass-court event in Mallorca, Spain, in June 2017.
She lost in the second round and then reached the fourth round at Wimbledon. She has not played a tournament since then because of a legal dispute over child custody with Leo’s father, Billy McKeague.