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Playing in his first tournament since a resurgent final run in Umag, Stan Wawrinka powered past home favourite Frances Tiafoe on Wednesday night at the Western & Southern Open. The Swiss wild card dominated from the baseline in a 6-3, 6-4 victory against the 10th-seeded American, wrapping up the emphatic upset in one hour, 18 minutes.

"It's been probably the best match of the season, I think the most complete match," Wawrinka said after improving to 6-1 in his past seven outings. "I was feeling good, moving well, serving well, being aggressive, staying with him, fighting. I'm super happy and hopefully I can keep playing that well."

The victory is Wawrinka's second this season against a Top 10 opponent, with the first coming against Holger Rune in Indian Wells. The oldest player in the Cincinnati men's singles draw at age 38, Wawrinka is the third oldest player in ATP Masters 1000 history (since 1990) to reach the Round of 16, behind two such runs by Ivo Karlovic.

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Wawrinka improved to 4-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head against Tiafoe with a vintage display that was anchored by his brilliant one-handed backhand. The Swiss dictated off that baseline wing for much of the evening, and even when Tiafoe gained the upper hand in the exchanges, the picture-perfect groundstroke proved a great equaliser.

Alexei Popyrin was sitting on the couch Tuesday morning inside the players’ lounge at the Lindner Family Tennis Centre in Cincinnati. Just shy of 11 a.m, the Australian’s phone rang. It was an ATP Tour manager, who was just a 10-second walk away.

“I was on the couch, literally switched on the PS5 to play FIFA with my physio, because we have a lot of FIFA battles,” Popyrin told ATPTour.com. “I got the call from the ATP Tour managers telling me that I have to be on court in five minutes. And I had just come into the centre literally 10 minutes before that.”

At 10:54 a.m., Karen Khachanov withdrew from the tournament. The first lucky loser, Daniel Altmaier, had already replaced Khachanov’s scheduled opponent, Andy Murray. Popyrin took Khachanov’s place in the draw and was given a brief period to physically warm up before heading out to the court.

Just two days earlier, Popyrin had lost in the final round of qualifying at the Western & Southern Open to countryman Max Purcell, who is also still in the tournament. Popyrin defeated Altmaier 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the second round.

“It's kind of something you don't have every day. So I think if anything, it gave me less pressure because I didn't have any expectations on myself, because I knew I didn't do everything possible to be ready for this match because I didn't know I was going to play,” Popyrin said. “So kind of had less expectations of myself, and I was relaxed when I came out there. In the first set, I told myself, 'Even if I lose it, it's kind of your warmup for the match.'”

When Tommy Paul steps on court Thursday at the Western & Southern Open, he will do so to face Carlos Alcaraz, the No. 1 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. For many players, that would be an intimidating experience.

There is good news for the American: He just defeated the Spaniard last week in Toronto.

“It helps a little bit, but at the same time, it probably doesn't hurt him,” Paul told a small group of media after his second-round win over Ugo Humbert. “He probably feels less pressure this week to play me than he did last week. So I think it's going to be a very, very tricky and tough match. But I'm really looking forward to this.”

Paul leads Alcaraz 2-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, with both his victories coming at Canada’s ATP Masters 1000 event. Last week, Alcaraz battled back to force a deciding set, but the Australian Open semi-finalist's aggression ruled the day.

How will the 26-year-old balance reusing a winning game plan with preventing his opponent from fully adjusting?

In his first match in Cincinnati since 2019, and his first tour-level appearance since the Wimbledon final, Novak Djokovic won a 6-4 opening set against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina before the Spaniard retired in the first game of the second set.

Djokovic, who won the Western & Southern Open in 2018 and in 2020 (when it was held in New York), will next meet Gael Monfils on Thursday.

Davidovich Fokina left the court for a medical timeout late in the first set to deal with a back problem, then retired early in the second due to the injury with 46 minutes on the match clock.

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"I hope Alejandro bounces back to the court quickly, recovers from his lower back injury, that's what he told me at the net," Djokovic said post-match.

"It's never the way you like to win, I think for the crowd as well. Coming in, they expect to see a battle, they expect to see a match. Of course it's great for me to be able to come back to the court and win a match. Obviously mixed emotions with the way it finished. Nevertheless, I'm hoping that I can build my form day to day and progress through the tournament with raising the level."

Holger Rune made his debut in the Top 5 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on Monday, but was unable to finish his first match as a member of that elite club.

Trailing 4-6, 0-2 against Mackenzie McDonald on Wednesday at the Western & Southern Open, the 20-year old was forced to retire. Following the first set, he received treatment on his lower back area from an ATP physiotherapist at the Cincinnati ATP Masters 1000. He lost five straight games from 4-3 in the first set before bowing out.

Rune was seeking his first win since he reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals, following an opening-round defeat to Marcos Giron last week in Toronto.

With the retirement, McDonald picked up his fourth Top 10 win of 2023 (4-2) and the fifth of his career. He defeated sixth seed Andrey Rublev last week in Toronto en route to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final.

There was little to separate Stefanos Tsitsipas and Ben Shelton on Wednesday in a sharp-serving shootout on the lightning-fast courts of Cincinnati.

It was the fourth-seeded Tsitsipas who ultimately raised his game in a pair of tie-breaks for a hard-earned 7-6 (3), 7-6(2) victory at the Western & Southern Open. The Greek made his experience count against his #NextGenATP opponent, staying consistent at the tailend of both sets to wrap a one-hour, 43-minute triumph.

“He’s still relatively young and he has that free spirit in the way he approaches his game,” said Tsitsipas. “It came down to two tiebreakers and I was very confident if I made a few returns back and got him to rally a bit, things might go my way, and it ended up so. I was tough, for sure. I was tough as nails, and that gave me the win today.”

Hellas hang time ⛹️‍♂️??@steftsitsipas | @CincyTennis | #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/YaJnz8lqpH

There may be some contrasts between Shelton’s kicking lefty serve and Tsitsipas’ flatter delivery, but both proved extremely effective in the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. The American won an impressive 84 per cent (36/43) of points behind his first serve but was still outdone by Tsitsipas, who won 93 per cent (37/40) of points behind his first delivery. Neither player faced a break point in the match.

Dusan Lajovic brought a stark reminder of the highs and lows of ATP Tour tennis on Wednesday at the Western & Southern Open.

Just three days after Jannik Sinner lifted his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Toronto, Lajovic defeated the Italian 6-4, 7-6(4) in Cincinnati. The Serbian produced a stunning display of clean hitting on Grandstand to overwhelm Sinner, who showed signs of fatigue but was nonetheless outplayed by the Serbian qualifier.

“I obviously knew that it was going to be tough because whenever you are playing somebody who is in great form and has a lot of confidence, they play well in the important moments,” said Lajovic. “You could see that, he was saving so many break points and everything when it was close, he was there.

“I knew I had been serving very well the past couple of days, so I thought if I continue to use my serve, both with the flat and the kick out wide, I could dominate the point after the serve. This is what I did most of the time in my service games… I was happy to finish in two sets because I know that going three sets against these kinds of players, it’s always going to be much tougher.”

Four wins this week ?
Four Top 10 victories in a row ?

Qualifier @Dutzee dismisses Toronto champion Sinner 6-4 7-6(4) with a sublime display@CincyTennis | #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/hxwLDhccKC

The Golden Gate Open is making history in its first year as an event.

Held at Stanford University in California, the combined ATP Challenger Tour and WTA 125 event is the first equal prize money tournament at that level.

Following the trail blazed by Billie Jean King 52 years ago when she pioneered the first all-women’s tennis tournament in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Open is hoping to set a new standard for gender equity in tennis. Part of the reason why they are able to host a combined event with equal prize money is because of tournament director Pablo Pires de Almeida and his team.

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“I really felt a lot of support, even though there was a lot of pressure on the shoulders. Honestly just to see it in action today, it’s beautiful,” Pires de Almeida said. “Just to see the men and women playing side-by-side, the night matches. We sold out our Saturday qualifying, over 2,000 tickets were sold and players came up to me saying, ‘We have never seen that many fans at a Challenger 125 for qualifying’. I mean that’s unbelievable.”

Tommy Paul has booked a showdown with World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz for the second consecutive week after defeating Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-1, 7-6(4) to reach the third round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

Paul leads the Spaniard 2-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series and knocked out the 20-year-old last week in the Toronto quarter-finals.

Paul, who claimed four breaks of serve against Humbert, is at a career-high No. 13 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and could break into the Top 10 for the first time with a deep run in Ohio.

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Taylor Fritz claimed his 30th hard-court match win of the season when he defeated Italian Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 7-6(1) after winning 10 of 14 net approaches.

Two clashes in the space of six days, two commanding victories for Daniil Medvedev against Lorenzo Musetti.

The third-seeded Medvedev produced a dominant 6-3, 6-2 triumph against the Italian on Wednesday at the Western & Southern Open to book his third-round spot in Cincinnati. Having also prevailed against Musetti at last week’s National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto, Medvedev now leads 2-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

“I think it’s tough for anyone to be comfortable [quickly] here," said Medvedev of the fast Cincinnati courts. "Tough conditions here, they changed the court. But then it comes to being the better in the tough conditions, and that’s what I managed to do today.

“We both made some mistakes, we both made some double faults and stuff like this, but I managed to be a little bit better in important moments and actually I felt like I was playing better and better during the match. So that’s a positive thing for the next round.”

Playing the plan to perfection ?

Two wins in a week for @DaniilMedwed over Musetti with 6-3 6-2 on the scoreboard@CincyTennis | #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/rgh9nNpZYj

Denis Shapovalov has withdrawn from the US Open as he continues his recovery from a knee injury, the World No. 22 announced on Wednesday via social media.

"Despite doing everything possible to be 100% healthy in time for the US Open, my knee needs more time and I sadly have to withdraw,” wrote Shapovalov on Twitter. “That grand slam energy, especially in NYC, is unlike anything else and I’m really going to miss playing in front of the amazing fans there this year!”

Despite doing everything possible to be 100% healthy in time for @usopen, my knee needs more time and I sadly have to withdraw. That grand slam energy, especially in NYC, is unlike anything else and I’m really going to miss playing in front of the amazing fans there this year! ? pic.twitter.com/aQmAvF7DUs

Shapovalov most recently competed at Wimbledon, where he reached the fourth round. The 24-year-old is a former US Open quarter-finalist, having reached the last eight in 2020. Shapovalov is 13-13 for 2023, with an ATP 250 quarter-final appearance in Adelaide his best result alongside his Wimbledon run.

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Yoshihito Nishioka, Action Man.

Life on the ATP Tour involves enough time spent practising, preparing, and recovering from competing that off-court escapes have become all-important for the Japanese star. The 2023 season has been no exception for Nishioka, whose experiences this year include flying a plane through the skies above Phoenix, Arizona, in March.

“It was my first time flying [a plane]," Nishioka told ATPTour.com earlier this year. "The person who was sitting with me, he just got a licence and he wanted me to sit by him. It was really great. I cannot do that in Japan, so it was really fun.

“I love Phoenix because the nature is beautiful. Sometimes a bit too hot and very dry, but I love nature. [I was in control of the plane] for like five minutes. We flew for two hours, but he said, ‘Okay, there is nothing around this area, so you can do it’. I tried. It was so scary, but it was a good experience.”

Carlos Alcaraz has captured his 50th match win of the year in personal-best time after defeating Jordan Thompson 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in his opening match at the Western & Southern Open Wednesday night.

But the speedy season journey to the half-century mark stands in stark contrast to what was generally a flat performance in the first two sets of a rain-interrupted match against the World No. 55 net-rushing Australian, who took the second set after having had game points for a 5-2 lead in the first.

It took Alcaraz, who made 26 unforced errors in the first set, until the start of the third set shortly before 12:30 a.m. to find his spark after his earlier sluggish performance, which also kept fans in a subdued mood for large portions of the match.

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"It wasn't an easy match but I found my best level at the end," Alcaraz said. "We were waiting around all day to play the match and then when you step on the court you have to start with the rain, so it wasn't easy.

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina grew up following the career of Novak Djokovic. The Spaniard watched as the Serbian star battled against the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, ultimately clawing from consistent World No. 3 to the man with the most weeks atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in history (389).

On Wednesday evening, the 24-year-old will face Djokovic in the second round of the Western & Southern Open.

“I wanted to one day play against him and obviously if I can beat him, for me it would have been a dream. I think it is the same now,” Davidovich Fokina told ATPTour.com. “If I can win this match tomorrow, for me it's a dream because in the end you don't win against these guys every day.”

It will be the pair’s fifth Lexus ATP Head2Head clash, but the opportunity to face someone like Djokovic never gets old for the World No. 23. He will also take confidence from a three-set upset of the Belgrade native last year in Monte-Carlo.

“I remember that I was dominating him very good. And in the middle of the second set, he broke me back. When he won the second set, he was on fire. But I just was [focussed] on being on court, to play against him and to be focussed on every ball,” Davidovich Fokina said. “I think that the key to win was to be focussed in every point.

Depth is Daniil’s diamond.

Daniil Medvedev’s unconventional, ultra-deep return position often sees him standing six metres or more behind the baseline to return first serves. What looks like a distinct disadvantage at first glance is actually a cleverly disguised trap. Medvedev is a peak performer at winning points against first serves compared to other elite players.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of return depth against first serves from the current Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings uncovers Medvedev’s paradoxical performance. Standing deep is not hurting him from returning deep, and in fact, he leads the Top 10 in one critical first-serve return statistic.

The data set comes from the Infosys ATP Return Tracker from the 2023 season (prior to Toronto) and focuses only on first-serve returns that land between the service line and baseline. Missed returns and returns in the service box are omitted.

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Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori picked up his fourth Top 10 win when he upset World No. 8 Andrey Rublev 7-6(10), 5-7, 7-6(3) in a three hour, 16-minute marathon at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati Tuesday night.

Avenging a four-set loss to Rublev at this year's Australian Open to improve his Lexus ATP Head2Head record against the seventh seed to 1-2, Ruusuvuori benefitted from Rublev's modest 50 per cent first-serve percentage.

The 24-year-old, who also defeated Jannik Sinner in 's-Hertogenbosch in his previous match against a member of the Top 10, has set a first-time meeting with Australian lucky loser Alexei Popyrin.

Rublev entered the North American hard-court swing poised to consolidate his claim to a berth at the Nitto ATP Finals, but after opening-round exits in Toronto and Cincinnati, he has given the chasing pack a chance to displace him from sixth position in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

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Gael Monfils backed up his quarter-final run in Toronto on Tuesday with a first-round victory at the Western & Southern Open, where he overcame physical issues and Briton Cameron Norrie 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in Cincinnati.

The 36-year-old Frenchman received treatment on his left calf in the first set, but did not let that stop him, producing an energetic display in the lively conditions in the second and third sets to advance after two hours and three minutes.

"I tried to keep it very simple with my game. I think the ATP physio came on the court and did a great job, not only the treatment but he managed to secure my head," said Monfils, who missed Roland Garros with a wrist injury and last year's US Open with a foot injury. "He said it would be fine and this meant the world for me. With what I have been through, it is always tough to give up with injury. But I fought. Felt good and had good wins last week and had the confidence to do it."

Monfils arrived in Washington at the start of the month with just one tour-level win to his name this year. However, he has started to rediscover his best level during the North American hard-court swing, with his victory against Norrie lifting him to 6-2 in August. Last week he defeated World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas in Toronto.

The former World No. 6, whose best result in Cincinnati was a quarter-final run in 2011, will next meet Toronto finalist Alex de Minaur or American J.J. Wolf.

Jamie Murray and Michael Venus delivered a rock-solid display Tuesday to ease past Nikola Cacic and Novak Djokovic and kick-start their campaign at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

The British-Kiwi pairing converted three of four break points they earned to prevail 6-4, 6-2 against Cacic and Djokovic, who was playing his first competitive match since his Wimbledon final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz. Murray and Venus crucially saved three break points en route to the first set before accelerating to a 65-minute first-round triumph at the hard-court ATP Masters 1000 event.

Their next assignment in Ohio is a second-round clash with top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski. Murray (who won the 2018 Cincinnati crown alongside Bruno Soares) and Venus have enjoyed a strong first season together so far, lifting ATP Tour titles in Dallas, Banja Luka and Geneva.

Currently 12th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, Murray and Venus can propel themselves into stronger contention for Nitto ATP Finals qualification by continuing their good form in Cincinnati.

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Carlos Alcaraz is in control of his own destiny this week in the battle for No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings at the Western & Southern Open.

If the Spaniard reaches the Cincinnati final, he will retain No. 1 leading into the US Open. Otherwise, Novak Djokovic will have an opportunity to reclaim top spot.

If the 20-year-old Alcaraz advances to the semi-finals, he will force the Serbian to make the final to take back World No. 1. Djokovic must reach the championship clash to have a chance.

Cincinnati Points Breakdown Per Round

There is the possibility of a tie, too. If Djokovic makes the final and Alcaraz reaches the quarter-finals, they both will have 9,395 points. Djokovic would reclaim World No. 1 in that scenario because he holds more combined Pepperstone ATP Rankings points from the mandatory tournaments (Grand Slams, ATP Masters 1000 mandatory tournaments and Nitto ATP Finals).