It seems like Wimbledon just finished yesterday, but we are already through the Olympics and one of two Masters tournaments of the American hard-court swing. Alexei Popyrin is the surprising winner of the 2024 Montreal Masters, beating Andrey Rublev in the final. Now, with just a couple more weeks to go until the final Slam of the year, we are about to start the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati. Let’s look at some players to watch this week!
WTA & ATP at once – more matches, more players to watch
As this is one of the few tournaments, where men and women are playing at the same venue in parallel, there are quite a few things to look out for. Let’s start with the women, where Iga Swiatek wants to bounce back from her disappointing Olympic tournament. For any other player on earth, the bronze medal would have been a success, but if you are the dominating player on clay and play at your favorite stadium, this is just not it. Recent training videos have seen her in good early hard-court shape, which probably is her second-best surface. Especially on outdoor courts she still is one of the top players and will go into the event the clear favorite at the sportsbooks.
She is joined by almost all other top players, including Aryna Sabalenka, who came back from injury in Toronto. Her comeback campaign was stopped by the furious Amanda Anisimova, but Sabalenka will surely look to get into US Open shape in Cincy. Coco Gauff goes into this hard-court season as the defending US Open champion, which could act rather as a burden, given her recent struggles at the bigger stages. Her third-round loss against Shnaider in Toronto is in line with her performances so far, so she will rather be looking to get playing time, instead of attacking for the title.
Elena Rybakina seems to be back from recent illness as well, after sitting out the Olympics and not playing since. This leaves all of the top-4 players with struggles and room for others to shine, such as the Olympic gold medalist Qinwen Zheng or Jessica Pegula. The Chinese star plays her first tournament back on hard-court and looked fierce in training sessions, while Pegula comes off a title in Toronto, where she beat the resurgent Anisimova in the final. Other players coming in with a full head of steam include Diana Shnaider, who is up to a career high No. 20, silver medalist Donna Vekic of Croatia and Paula Badosa. The most notable absences include Maria Sakkari, Barbora Krejcikova and Danielle Collins, who seem to prepare for the US Open in a different way.
Novak out celebrating – another next-gen show?
The now fully completed career Golden Slam has left Novak Djokovic with just one thing to do – to celebrate. He will not play the Cincinnati Masters and the title will be up for grabs in 2024. The main contenders, as per usual, are Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. However, both of them still have a few question marks to their name, as Sinner struggled with his hip in Montreal and Alcaraz is just coming back from his post-Olympics holiday. But still, they are always in the mix for the title and Alcaraz should handily win the No. 2 spot from Djokovic, which just two wins to get for this.
Aside of the injured Alex DeMinaur, all other top-10 players will also play the event, with mainly Andrey Rublev coming in with some confidence from his final in Montreal. Even though he lost against Popyrin, it seems that he has found a way out of his downward spiral and might be back for consideration in Cincy. Hubert Hurkacz is also back from injury and looked surprisingly well during the Montreal Masters. He might not be back to his best movement, but on a fast court he can always serve his way to a tiebreak and do some damage. Sascha Zverev looked good tennis-wise but seems to have picked up some illness from Paris and does not seem to be one of the top contenders, as well as Ruud, Medvedev and Dimitrov, who are all back on a hard-court and building.
The men of the moment could be the Americans on home soil, where they meet their favorite surface again. Both Ben Shelton and Sebastian Korda are on a career high placement and seem to be in-shape for their home Slam. Look for them to make a splash at Cincinnati, alongside the Montreal winner Alexei Popyrin, who typically likes this swing before the US Open. Other players to watch this week include Italian youngster Flavio Cobolli, comebacker Jiri Lehecka and Paris bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti. Tommy Paul already lost his opening match and will have some work to do, as have the absent Alexander Bublik and Francisco Cerundolo, who also lost his opener.
Early predictions:
The pre–US Open swing is always hard to predict, as it typically produces surprising finalists and winners with the surface change and different preparation rhythms. Especially with this year’s Olympics in between, the top players come in with a lot less matches on hard. My early prediction is that the women’s side is wide open, with almost all top players struggling. The men’s side is most likely depending on the form of Carlos Alcaraz and the hip of Jannik Sinner but might also have another surprise in for us.
Here are my early guesses for the Cincinnati 2024 betting:
Men: Alcaraz (w) – Rublev
Women: Paolini – Pegula (w)
