Two-time champion Simona Halep and 2009 finalist Caroline Wozniacki have been awarded wild cards to the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open, the tournament announced Wednesday.

The first of two clay-court WTA 1000 events played this spring prior to the year's second Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros, the two former World No.1s will join a star-studded field that's also expected to include two-time Madrid champion Aryna Sabalenka, World No.1 Iga Swiatek, 2022 champion Ons Jabeur, and four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka.

No woman has reached the final at the Caja Magica more times than Halep, whose played for the trophy four times. In addition to winning it back-to-back in 2016-17, she also was the runner-up to Maria Sharapova in 2014 and Kiki Bertens in 2019. The Romanian boasts a 30-9 career record at the tournament -- her most career victories at any of the WTA 1000 events on the calendar.

Halep, now 22, returned to tennis two weeks ago as a wild card at the Miami Open -- her first tournament since the 2022 US Open. The Court of Arbitration for Sport had previously reduced the Romanian's four-year ban for two anti-doping rule violations to nine months on March 5, making her eligible to resume her tennis career with immediate effect.

She lost in the opening round in Miami to Spain's Paula Badosa -- who is also entered in Madrid using her injury-protected ranking.

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Wozniacki, meanwhile, last played in Madrid in 2019 as she continues her comeback to tennis as a mother of two, which began last summer following a three-year retirement. The Dane reached the final in the tournament's first year at the Caja Magica when she was 18 years ago, finishing as runner-up to Dinara Safina, and previously played the clay-court WTA 1000 event on 10 total occasions. She also reached the quarterfinals in 2015.

This week at the Credit One Charleston Open, former World No.1 Wozniacki scored her first clay-court win in five years when she defeated American McCartney Kessler 6-0, 6-1 in the opening round.

The two-week Mutua Madrid Open will be played from April 23 to May 5.