Osaka, Halep, Raducanu lead 2022 Melbourne Summer Set ahead of Australian Open

Melbourne [Australia], December 10 (ANI): The Melbourne Summer Set, comprising two WTA 250, will feature some of the world's biggest names warming up for the Australian Open at Melbourne Park from January 3-9.
Twenty of the world's top 50 women will start the 2022 season in Victoria, including four-time Grand Slam champion and defending AO champion Naomi Osaka, world No.11 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, US Open 2021 champion Emma Raducanu and former world No.1 Simona Halep.
The four players are among 20 of the world's Top 50 players on the entry list for the two WTA 250 tournaments scheduled. The entry list will be split between the tournaments in the week of December 27.
Osaka will be playing for the first time since falling in the US Open third round to eventual finalist Leylah Fernandez. Halep, who endured an injury-struck 2021, will be seeking to build on an autumn resurgence that saw her reach the Cluj-Napoca final on home soil. Raducanu, 19, will be competing in her fourth tournament since winning the US Open as a qualifier in September, and just her eighth WTA-level event overall.
Also on the list are Elise Mertens, winner of the Gippsland Trophy in Melbourne last year, and teenage up-and-comers Clara Tauson, Marta Kostyuk and Camila Osorio. Tauson's breakthrough 2021 season involved Dane's first two WTA titles in Lyon and Luxembourg, while Osorio took her maiden trophy at home in Bogota and capped her year with a first hardcourt final in Tenerife.
Former Top 10 players Daria Kasatkina, Madison Keys and Caroline Garcia will also begin 2022 in Melbourne, as well as Roland Garros finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Australian Open quarterfinalist Jessica Pegula.
Montreal champion Camila Giorgi, three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Yulia Putintseva, Berlin winner Liudmila Samsonova, doubles World No.1 Katerina Siniakova and Egypt's trailblazing Mayar Sherif are also on the entry list. (ANI)