High seed Carlos Alcaraz may face Casper Ruud within the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters whereas Novak Djokovic has a troublesome path to the ultimate, as per the draw of the event scheduled to be performed from August 13-20.
World No. 1 Alcaraz comes into the event after a shock defeat to USA’s Tommy Paul within the quarterfinals of the Canadian Open. He has been awarded a bye in Cincinnati and will start the ultimate occasion earlier than his US Open title protection with a second-round conflict towards American wildcard John Isner. He may then be up towards Paul within the spherical of 16 earlier than a possible last-eight conflict with Ruud in a rematch of final yr’s US Open last.
Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, seeded fourth, is in Alcaraz’s half of the draw and the 2 may face one another within the semifinals. Seventh-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev and defending champion Borna Coric of Croatia, fifteenth seed, are additionally within the Spaniard’s draw.
World No. 2 Djokovic is ready to play his first event because the defeat to Alcaraz within the Wimbledon last. He’ll function in each singles and doubles (with compatriot Nikola Cacic) in Cincinnati earlier than his return to US Open after two years. The 36-year-old Serbian had missed final yr’s version since he couldn’t enter the US which required the worldwide travellers to be vaccinated towards COVID-19. Nonetheless, the US authorities ended the vaccine mandate on Could 11, clearing the way in which for Djokovic’s entry.
Second-seeded Djokovic might be up towards Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina within the second spherical earlier than a doable spherical of 16 battle with Alex de Minaur of Australia. Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev are the potential opponents for Djokovic within the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Listed below are a few of the first-round matches to be careful:-
- Frances Tiafoe vs Tallon Griekspoor
- Brandon Nakashima vs Stan Wawrinka
- Ben Shelton vs Christopher Eubanks
- Andy Murray vs Karen Khachanov
- Matteo Berrettini vs Felix Auger-Aliassime
- Taylor Fritz vs Jiri Lehecka
- Gael Monfils vs Cameron Norrie