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Former US Open champions Dominic Thiem and Stan Wawrinka will receive wild card spots in the US Open main draw this year, the USTA announced Wednesday.

Thiem, who has announced that the 2024 season will be his last, claimed his lone Grand Slam title at the 2020 US Open, where he rallied back from two sets down to defeat Alexander Zverev 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(6). The Austrian, who has 348 career match wins according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, is hoping to reach the 350-wins mark before calling time on his career. 

Wawrinka captured his third Grand Slam and first US Open title in 2016, overcoming defending champion and then-No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings Novak Djokovic 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. That win was one of just six in 27 career Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings with the seven-time Nitto ATP Finals champion.

The former champions will be joined by fellow wild cards Christopher Eubanks, Zachary Svajda, Learner Tien and Matthew Forbes. Alexandre Muller and Tristan Schoolkate have also received wild cards as part of reciprocal agreements with other Grand Slam nations.

Both Svajda and Eubanks have previously reached the second round of the US Open; Tien has twice played in the main draw. Forbes will make his Grand Slam singles debut after winning the singles title at the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships.

Jannik Sinner bounced back from a hip-injury scare and a quarter-final exit in Montreal with a battling opening win Wednesday at the Cincinnati Open. The Italian saved all eight break points against him in a 6-4, 7-5 victory against #NextGenATP American Alex Michelsen on centre court.

Sinner improved to 25-2 on hard courts this season and will next meet Sebastian Baez or Jordan Thompson for a place in the quarter-finals. Sinner has reached that stage at all five previous ATP Masters 1000s he has played this season, but he has never advanced to the quarters in Cincinnati.

"It was a tough match. He played already some matches but for me it was the first match here, so I tried to feel the conditions a but more," he said post-match. "I'm very happy to be in the next round. For me this is a place where I used to struggle a lot in the past years, so let's see what I can do this time.

"I'm trying to stay in a positive mindset, positive moment, and I think that today also brought me the win."

OUTRAGEOUS on the stretch! ?@CincyTennis | #CincyTennis | @janniksin pic.twitter.com/LBbw3et2Q4

Stefanos Tsitsipas dug deep to get his North American hard-court summer moving on Wednesday at the Cincinnati Open.

Competing at the ATP Masters 1000 event off the back of an opening-round defeat in Montreal, Tsitsipas rallied from a set and a break down to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. The Greek created plenty of opportunities on return across the second and third sets, when he converted three of 14 break points he earned en route to a one-hour, 57-minute triumph.

“I felt like I was in a great flow state towards the end of the match with my serve,” said Tsitsipas in his post-match interview. “Immediately my groundstrokes improved, immediately my confidence to come forward and close in improved, so there were a lot of improvements that contributed to my game today.

“I was down a break, and I managed to keep on fighting and get the break back. Suddenly I felt like I was starting to figure out what really worked behind his serve. He made a few double faults, and I took that chance, got myself in the lead, and I think once I started reminding myself of my best qualities as a player, these things really started working on court. It gave me a massive push to [close out the match].”

Mid-match improvements ✅✅✅✅@steftsitsipas made some changes and his #ShotQuality soared ?#ShotQuality is calculated in real-time by analysing each shot's speed, spin, depth, width, and the impact it has on the opponent#TennisInsights | @atptour | @CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/sqOfhxigAY

Former US Open champion Marin Cilic is set to play his first tournament in more than six months later this month when he returns to competitive action at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar ATP Challenger Tour event in Manacor.

Cilic last competed at the ATP 250 event in Buenos Aires in February. The former No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings underwent right knee surgery in early May.

The Croatian will be one of the big names to compete in the sixth edition of the Rafa Nadal Open by Movistar, which takes place from 26 August to 1 September.

After over two seasons plagued by injury, Marin Cilic will return to competition on the ATP Challenger Tour, where he previously won two titles in 2007 (Casablanca and Rijeka) and will now try to make it three of a kind 17 years later.

It will not be the first time the Rafa Nadal Open by Movistar has welcomed a US Open champion, after participations from Andy Murray (won at Flushing Meadows in 2012) and Carlos Alcaraz, who played in the Challenger event three years before claiming his first Grand Slam.

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Alex de Minaur is set to return from injury later this month at the US Open, the Australian revealed on social media on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old has not competed since Wimbledon in July, when he suffered a hip injury during the closing stages of his fourth-round win against Arthur Fils. De Minaur was forced to withdraw ahead of his quarter-final clash with Novak Djokovic and has since missed the Paris Olympics and ATP Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati.

However, De Minaur is ready to compete at the US Open in New York, where the final major of the season starts on 26 August.

"Little update. Been working hard trying to recover from my injury. It’s been very tough missing tournaments and excited to say I’ll be playing US Open," De Minaur wrote on Instagram. "Thanks to all the support I’ve gotten, it’s definitely helped me through these tough times. There’s always light and the end of the tunnel."

At 5 a.m. in California on the day of the Australian Open final, Alex Michelsen was awake because of jet lag following his own trip to Australia — he made the third round at the year’s first major.

The #NextGenATP American was able to catch the end of the memorable clash between Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, in which Sinner rallied from two sets down to claim his first major trophy.

“The level he got in the fifth set of his first Grand Slam final, that was pretty epic,” Michelsen told ATPTour.com.

After defeating Tallon Griekspoor in three sets Tuesday, the 19-year-old Michelsen will play Sinner for the first time in the second round of the Cincinnati Open on Wednesday.

“It'll be a lot of fun. I've got nothing to lose,” Michelsen said. “I’m going to go out there and try my best to swing free and have fun, and we'll see what happens.”

Jiri Lehecka’s victory on Tuesday at the Cincinnati Open was more meaningful than the other 17 wins he has earned this season. The Czech’s clash with Mariano Navone was his first match since early May when he retired from the Mutua Madrid Open semi-finals against Felix Auger-Aliassime.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Lehecka told ATPTour.com. “The most important thing was just to feel healthy again and not to feel any pain, which I must say happened today. I was totally pain free. I felt good on court physically, which was the most important thing for me, and the fact that I won was just a bonus.”

After Madrid, Lehecka’s medical team discovered a stress fracture in his vertebra. It was a devastating blow for a player at the top of his game in a position to push for the biggest title of his career.

“I was struggling with my back since the beginning of the clay season. So basically it got worse and worse during the whole Madrid tournament. I kind of thought that it was okay, because I pulled out of Monaco, I pulled out of Barcelona these two weeks. I didn't play at all. I was just doing some rehab and stuff,” Lehecka said. “All the signals and scans showed us that the back was all right and that I was ready to go and it was alright.

"I felt good, but during my first match in Madrid, I started to feel again pain in that area. It was getting worse and worse during the whole tournament, and unfortunately, it ended in my semi-final match against Felix.”

Damir Dzumhur was a perennial Top 100 player in the PIF ATP Rankings from 2015-2020. He reached as high as World No. 23 and claimed three tour-level trophies in a two-year span. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and put the Tour on pause, Dzumhur would not have guessed he would need to wait four years to return to the Top 100.

“At the time, it's not easy to accept it,” Dzumhur told ATPTour.com. “Knowing that you've been in the Top 100 for almost six years, playing at the highest level tournaments, playing the Grand Slams and then suddenly you are not there, you have to play in qualies, you have to play more Challengers. [You think], ‘I'm going to get back,’ but it's not that easy. Then certain things are happening, you can't perform at your best level, you're not there and it's not easy to accept it.”

The 32-year-old, who hails from Bosnia-Herzegovina, has quietly been climbing on the ATP Challenger Tour, the circuit on which he has claimed three titles this year: Barletta, Italy; Ostrava, Czech Republic; Zagreb, Croatia.

Never give up ?

Damir Dzumhur comes back from 1-5 down in the third set to beat Squire 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 and claim the title in Ostrava!#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/QJc5RS2URt

One of six players to win a trio of Challenger titles this season, it was that level that first exposed Dzumhur to pro tennis when he was nine.

Paris Olympics’ bronze medallist Lorenzo Musetti made a successful transition from clay to hard court Tuesday at the Cincinnati Open when he survived a third-set tie-break to defeat Chilean Nicolas Jarry

World No. 18 Musetti, who has reached five consecutive quarter-finals, including a career-best run to the Wimbledon semi-finals, edged Jarry 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4) in his first hard-court match since Miami in March.

“I’m really happy to get the win today. I couldn’t find my game in the fast conditions at the beginning,” said Musetti, who won 85 per cent of first-serve points according to Infosys ATP Stats. “Coming from clay to hard is not the easiest thing to do. But I won two tie-breaks against a great server like Nico, so I’m really proud of the fight.

“It’s been more than three months since I’ve played on hard in Miami, but I’ve made so many results and achievements, so I’m trying to keep this consistency in my work.”

Heating up ???

The recent ?@Lorenzo1Musetti gets the forehand #ShotQuality rolling in @CincyTennis #ShotQuality is calculated in real-time by analysing each shot's speed, spin, depth, width, and the impact it has on the opponent#TennisInsights | @atptour | #Cincytennis pic.twitter.com/Vv8k1O8CkO

Serbia’s capital city Belgrade is home to roughly 1.6 million people. Historical landmarks, museums and attractions maintain a steady flow of traffic throughout the city. But Hamad Medjedovic will never forget the way Belgrade was during the Paris Olympics gold-medal match when Novak Djokovic secured his career Golden Slam.

“I remember when he was playing, every street was empty. You could only hear the shouting, the voices of people screaming,” Medjedovic told ATPTour.com at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour 100 event in Cary, North Carolina.

“I think in the past few years, sports-wise, I think this is the biggest result that we've had. Everybody was waiting for him to win it. Obviously he did it all, except that one. We were all so happy after he won it.”

Djokovic, who has spent more than eight years as World No. 1 the PIF ATP Rankings, has been instrumental in Medjedovic’s journey to professional tennis. The 37-year-old has offered advice and provided resources to help his countryman, whether it be facilities, coaches or financial assistance.

Medjedovic earned one of his biggest rewards at the end of last season, when he won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, which has featured past champions such as Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas. “I think I'm going to remember that week for the rest of my life,” Medjedovic said.

American hard courts often bring out the best in Frances Tiafoe.

That much was true on Tuesday afternoon at the Cincinnati Open, where the home favourite put together a high-quality first-round display to down Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 7-6(6). Tiafoe produced some moments of magic, particularly off his forehand wing, to improve to 9-2 in opening-round matches on hard courts this year.

The No. 27 in the PIF ATP Rankings and a former US Open semi-finalist, Tiafoe reached the quarter-finals in Atlanta and the semi-finals in Washington before a first-round exit in Montreal last week. He was in trouble early on his return to home soil in Cincinnati but reeled off six straight games from 1-3 in the first set to take control against Davidovich Fokina.

Tiafoe looked set to seal a routine victory in the 10th game of the second set, when he carved out three match points. Yet Davidovich Fokina held firm on serve, and even earned a set point of his own in the subsequent tie-break before Tiafoe found a final three-point streak from 5/6 to complete a one-hour, 44-minute victory.

“I thought he played some pretty good points. Other than the return I had on my racquet, the other two he played some good points," reflected Tiafoe when asked about his difficulties closing out the match. "He’s a Spaniard and they fight until the end, so I kind of knew that going in and wasn’t too surprised.

Novak Djokovic celebrated his gold medal victory at the Paris 2024 Olympics in his native Serbia with the rest of the Serbian Olympic team, as huge crowds of Serbians received their athletes with a warm welcome Monday evening.

Thousands of onlookers congregated in the capital at Belgrade City Hall to celebrate the efforts of Djokovic and the rest of the Serbian Olympic team, following an Olympic campaign where Serbia accrued five medals overall, including three gold medals. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was present to warmly greet Djokovic and the rest of the Serbian athletes.

Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz 7-6(3), 7-6(2) in the Olympic final to claim a long- awaited Olympic gold medal and complete the career ‘Golden Slam’. The Serb was visibly emotional after his victory, stating that winning the elusive gold medal was "the biggest sporting achievement I have had".

“I have had the honour and pleasure of being on this special [City Hall] balcony several times in my career, but each time you surprise and inspire me more and more,” Djokovic told the crowd. “This is the most beautiful feeling that an athlete from Serbia can experience.”

Djokovic was joined on the Belgrade City Hall balcony by the rest of the Serbian Olympic team, which included basketball star, Nikola Jokic, a staple figure in the national team as they secured the bronze medal with victory over Germany.

Andrey Rublev may have fallen one match short of winning his third ATP Masters 1000 title on Monday night at the Omnium Banque Nationale présenté par Rogers, but the 26-year-old is proud of how he controlled his emotions throughout his run in Montreal.

“It's a very positive and a really good week. A really big step forward I think. I feel proud of myself that I was able to be really good all week mentally,” Rublev said. “If we took me back a couple of months ago or even one month ago or even compare my match against [Popyrin] at Monte-Carlo when I was losing, I was behaving ten times more and it was the first round.

“Here it was a final. Much more pressure. I still showed a bit of emotion today, but compared to the matches when I was losing the same way, I think I did a much better job. That's why I had a little chance in the second set.”

Rublev has struggled to control his emotions at times in the past, with fans becoming accustomed to seeing the 26-year-old show a full range of feelings when on court.

However, the No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings was calm throughout his run in Montreal, where he upset World No. 1 Jannik Sinner en route to the final. The 16-time tour-level titlist is keen to build on his emotional progress in the weeks ahead.

Alexei Popyrin delivered for Australia at the Omnium Banque Nationale présenté par Rogers in Montreal on Monday when he became the first Aussie ATP Masters 1000 winner since Lleyton Hewitt triumphed in Indian Wells 21 years ago in 2003.

Popyrin defeated Andrey Rublev in the final to claim the biggest title of his career and revealed that former World No. 1 Hewitt offered him important advice ahead of the hard-court event that gave him a boost in Canada.

“Lleyton was actually with me at the Olympics last week and he helped me so much in the Olympics and has helped me so much throughout my career. He gave me some good advice after my match against Zverev at the Olympics,” said Popyrin, who lost to the German in Paris. “He said, ‘You took one of the best players in the world, one of the more informed players in the world, to kind of play some unbelievable tennis to beat you’. I was a break up in that match, so serving for the [first] set and kind of choked it.

“He kind of flipped the switch on it and kind of told me a positive overlook on that match and then gave me the confidence coming into this week.”

Popyrin played with a renewed sense of believe all week in Montreal and thundered 18 forehand winners in the final. The 25-year-old believes his attacking display against Rublev was one of the best performances of his life.

The North American hard-court swing continued at the Omnium Banque Nationale présenté par Rogers , where Alexei Popyrin powered to the title. ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week in the PIF ATP Rankings as of Tuesday, 13 August.

No. 23 Alexei Popyrin, +39 (Career High)
The Australian has soared to a career-high No. 23 in the PIF ATP Rankings after he won his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Montreal. Popyrin earned five Top 20 wins en route to the title, including a final win against Andrey Rublev.

"It means the world, for all the hard work I've put in over the years, all the sacrifices I have made," said Popyrin, who is the first Australian Masters 1000 winner since Lleyton Hewitt won Indian Wells 21 years ago in 2003.

No. 6 Andrey Rublev, +2
Rublev has jumped two spots after he reached his sixth Masters 1000 final and second of the season. The 26-year-old, who won in Madrid earlier this season, upset World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals but could not overcome Popyrin, who saved match points in his third-round win against Grigor Dimitrov.

No. 15 Sebastian Korda, +3 (Career High)
The 24-year-old continued his recent rise with a semi-final showing in Montreal. The American, who captured his maiden ATP 500 title in Washington earlier this month, upset World No. 4 Alexander Zverev in the quarters for his second Top 5 win.

The pain was sudden. There was a pounding in his head. Hugo Dellien was awake in the middle of the night. To make matters more frustrating, the Bolivian was competing that week in qualifying for Roland Garros, the clay-court major where in 2022 he beat two-time finalist Dominic Thiem in the opening round.

But this year’s trip to the Parisian clay for Dellien was the beginning of a difficult period for the 31-year-old, who has since turned around his misfortune for three ATP Challenger Tour titles in the past month. Dellien fell in the first round of Roland Garros qualifying and quickly returned home to South America to address the immense pain in his mouth that pain pills could not subside.

“It was a tough time because I had a lot of things with my wisdom teeth. I took out three wisdom teeth,” Dellien told ATPTour.com. “So much pain in my head. I couldn’t eat anything, just ice cream. If you take out just one wisdom tooth, you can eat. But not with three.

“I chose to get the three out because it’s one time and then no more. It was a hard moment.”

Two days after competing in France, Dellien underwent wisdom tooth extraction. And in his first tournament back, the Santa Fe Challenger, adversity hit once again in a freak accident.

Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson have won three titles together this season. Will they claim a fourth at the Cincinnati Open?

The eighth-seeded Australians ousted American wild cards Robert Cash and JJ Tracy 7-6(5), 6-3 on Monday evening to reach the second round in Ohio. They will next play Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas or Mackenzie McDonald and Alex Michelsen.

Purcell and Thompson, champions this year in Dallas, Los Cabos and Houston, saved all four break points they faced according to Infosys ATP Stats. They are pursuing their first ATP Masters 1000 title as a team.

Singles stars Arthur Fils and Nicolas Jarry ousted Belgian doubles standouts Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-2, 7-5. The French-Chilean duo will next take on second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden.

In other action, sixth seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin defeated Lloyd Glasspool and Ugo Humbert 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 and Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic defeated Sadio Doumbia and Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-2.

Australian Alexei Popyrin completed one of the most unlikely ATP Masters 1000 title runs in recent memory Monday night when he stunned World No. 6 Andrey Rublev in the Montreal final on the back of 18 forehand winners.

Coming into the Omnium Banque Nationale présenté par Rogers as the World No. 62 and after playing the Paris Olympics on clay, the 25-year-old Australian claimed three Top 10 wins and snapped the eight-match winning streak of Washington champion Sebastian Korda en route to the title. He also took down World No. 14 Ben Shelton in the second round.

"It means the world, for all the hard work I've put in over the years, all the sacrifices I have made," said Popyrin, who is the first Australian Masters 1000 winner since Lleyton Hewitt won Indian Wells 21 years ago in 2003.

"Not just me, but my family, my girlfriend, my team, everybody around me. They have sacrificed their whole lives for me and for me to win this for them is just amazing."

Fully buying into a Big-Man Tennis approach behind his booming serve, aggressive assault of Rublev’s second serve and massive forehand blows, Popyrin broke Rublev to love in the opening game of the match and never looked back as he charged to a 6-2, 6-4 win.

Horacio Zeballos produced a serving masterclass in partnering Marcel Granollers to their second ATP Masters 1000 title of the year in Montreal on Monday.

The Argentine dropped just one point on his serve throughout the match, winning his 21st straight service point on championship point to hand Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury their second consecutive runner-up finish in the Omnium Banque Nationale présenté par Rogers following the 6-2, 7-6(4) victory.

“This was our first tournament together five years ago, so it’s a very special tournament for us and it means a lot to win this title,” Zeballos said. “It was a pleasure to play in front of this beautiful crowd.”

Granollers said, “Rajeev and Joe are one of the greatest teams on tour and it’s very tough to play against them. But we’re very happy with how we played today.  We’re very happy with the year with two Masters 1000s.”

Granollers and Zeballos won the Montreal title five years ago (beating Ram and Salisbury en route in the semi-finals) in their first tournament as a team.