With the Canadian Open drawing to a close, the tennis world will turn its attention to Cincinnati for next week’s 1000-point tournament. Novak Djokovic will be back in action for the first time since losing the Wimbledon final. And the draw has thrown up nine epic first-round matches on both the men’s and women’s sides, featuring Brits like Andy Murray and Cameron Norrie.
Related Articles
The Western and Southern Open gets underway in Cincinnati on Monday as the world’s best tennis players look to prepare for the US Open. The men and women have been split across Toronto and Montreal in Canada this week but will be reunited in Ohio.
Even though the top eight players get byes to the second round, there are plenty of exciting matches from the off in Cincinnati, with Caroline Wozniacki continuing her comeback from retirement while Gael Monfils looks to build on the form that got him to the last-eight in Toronto.
The Frenchman will be a tough test for British No 1 Norrie as they will face off in the first round. And Norrie isn’t the only Brit with a tricky draw as Murray is set to come up against world No 11 Karen Khachanov – though Murray recently pulled out of the Canadian Open injured and could skip Cincinnati.
Two former champions will do battle when 16th seed Alexander Zverev takes on Grigor Dimitrov. The American fans will be treated to a showdown between two of their most exciting players, Ben Shelton and Christopher Eubanks, with the winner getting Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Another young American sensation – Sebastian Korda – will take on defending champion Borda Coric in the first round. And good friends Matteo Berrettini and Felix Auger-Aliassime will also face off, with the 2021 Wimbledon finalist finding some form of late while the world No 12 has been struggling.
On the women’s side, there will be a showdown between two women responsible for two of the biggest comeback stories of the year. Elina Svitolina faces Caroline Wozniacki in the Dane’s second tournament since deciding to return to competition after retiring in 2020.
Svitolina gave birth last October and returned to the tour in April, and has already won a title and reached the semi-final of Wimbledon. There are also some exciting matches between former world No 1s and Grand Slam champions.
2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko faces former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova while Victoria Azarenka takes on another Roland Garros champion in Barbora Krejcikova. As for the big names, ATP world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz awaits the winner of a match between John Isner and a qualifier.
Novak Djokovic will face either Alejandro Davidovich Fokins or Tomas Etcheverry. On the women’s side, world No 1 Iga Swiatek gets dangerous wildcard Danielle Collins or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The post Murray, Monfils and Wozniacki feature in 9 epic first-round Cincinnati clashes appeared first on Bloomberg News Today.
