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Qualifying Serves Up First Action Beginning Saturday at 10 a.m.
CINCINNATI (Aug. 13, 2021) – World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and 2019 champion Daniil Medvedev are the top seeds in the Western & Southern Open singles draws that were made Friday.
Barty, the 2021 Wimbledon champion, begins her 87th week as the WTA’s No. 1 ranked player on Monday. The Australian was the Western & Southern Open top seed in 2019 and reached the semifinals. This will be her fourth appearance in Cincinnati.
The No. 2 seed in the women’s draw is 2020 Western & Southern Open finalist Naomi Osaka. The four-time Major champion will face either a qualifier or Coco Gauff, who is making her Cincinnati debut at 17-years-old, in the second round.
First round matches of note include a rematch of the Tokyo Olympics Gold Medal match that Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic won over Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic. Madison Keys, the 2019 Western & Southern Open champion, will take on two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova in the opening round while two-time Cincinnati finalist Angelique Kerber will face Maria Sakkari. Victoria Azarenka will begin her title defense against a qualifier.
View the WTA Singles Draw
Medvedev’s 2019 win came just weeks before he reached the US Open final. It was the first of his three ATP Masters 1000 titles, and the Russian now owns 11 career titles. He owns an 8-3 record at the Western & Southern Open.
Medvedev will face the winner of an all-American showdown in his first match after Brandon Nakashima faces Mackenzie McDonald. Nakashima reached back-to-back finals this summer at Los Cabos and Atlanta while McDonald, an NCAA champion at UCLA, reached his first career final last week in Washington, D.C.
Three other former champions are in the men’s draw. Grigor Dimitrov, the 2017 champion, will take on No. 13 seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round while 2016 winner Marin Cilic faces 2021 Australian Open semifinalist Aslan Karatsev and two-time winner Andy Murray will face a qualifier.
View the ATP Singles Draw
The two-round qualifying tournament starts play at 10 a.m. Saturday. Two local players highlight the schedule with Mason native Peyton Stearns facing Wimbledon doubles champion Hsieh Su-wei while Cincinnati’s JJ Wolf will take on American Olympian Marcos Giron.
Here is the full schedule for Saturday:
ORDER OF PLAY - SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2021
CENTER COURT start 10:00 am
ATP - Qualifying - [7] Lorenzo Musetti (Italy) vs Kevin Anderson (South Africa)
WTA - Qualifying - [WC] Alycia Parks (USA) vs [9] Caroline Garcia (France)
ATP - Qualifying - [1] Richard Gasquet (France) vs [WC] Fernando Verdasco (Spain)
WTA - Qualifying - [8] Donna Vekic (Croatia) vs Christina McHale (USA)
WTA - Qualifying - [5] Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) vs Lauren Davis (USA)
GRANDSTAND start 10:00 am
WTA - Qualifying - [1] Viktorija Golubic (Switzerland) vs Fiona Ferro (France)
ATP - Qualifying - Steve Johnson (USA) vs [13] Emil Ruusuvuori (Finland)
WTA - Qualifying - [WC] Katie Volynets (USA) vs [11] Heather Watson (Great Britain)
ATP - Qualifying - [WC] J.J. Wolf (USA) vs [8] Marcos Giron (USA)
ATP - Qualifying - [WC] Jack Sock (USA) vs [14] [Alt] Alexei Popyrin (Australia)
STADIUM 3 start 10:00 am
ATP - Qualifying - Tennys Sandgren (USA) vs [11] Jeremy Chardy (France)
ATP - Qualifying - [3] Tommy Paul (USA) vs Soonwoo Kwon (South Korea)
ATP - Qualifying - [6] Vasek Pospisil (Canada) vs Corentin Moutet (France)
STADIUM 4 start 10:00 am
WTA - Qualifying - [2] Shuai Zhang (China) vs Yaroslava Shvedova (Kazakhstan)
WTA - Qualifying - [7] Kristina Mladenovic (France) vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Belarus)
WTA - Qualifying - [4] Rebecca Peterson (Sweden) vs Astra Sharma (Australia)
WTA - Qualifying - Irina-Camelia Begu (Romania) vs [13] Lelyah Fernandez (Canada)
PORSCHE COURT 10 start 10:00 am
WTA - Qualifying - Polona Hercog (Slovenia) vs [15] Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic)
WTA - Qualifying - [WC] Emma Navarro (USA) vs [12] Andrea Petkovic (Germany)
WTA - Qualifying - [WC] Peyton Stearns (USA) vs [14] Su-Wei Hsieh (Taipei)
WTA - Qualifying - [8] Tereza Martincova (Czech Republic) vs Elena-Gabriela Ruse (Romania)
COURT 7 start 10:00 am
ATP - Qualifying - [4] Yoshihito Nishioka (Japan) vs Egor Gerasimov (Belarus)
ATP - Qualifying - [2] Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) vs Thiago Monteiro (Brazil)
ATP - Qualifying - [5] Dominik Koepfer (Germany) vs Andreas Seppi (Italy)
COURT 8 start 10:00 am
WTA - Qualifying - Anna Blinkova (Russia) vs [16] Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (Colombia)
WTA - Qualifying - [3] Liudmila Samsonova (Russia) vs Vera Zvonareva (Russia)
WTA - Qualifying - Jasmine Paolini (Italy) vs Anastasija Sevastova (Latvia)
COURT 11 start 10:00 am
ATP - Qualifying - Ricardas Berankis (Lithuania) vs [12] Gianluca Mager (Italy)
ATP - Qualifying - [WC] MitchellKrueger (USA) vs [9] Ilya Ivashka (Belarus)
ATP - Qualifying - Norbert Gombos (Slovakia) vs [10] Jaume Munar (Spain)
While the qualifying matches take place over opening weekend, many main draw players will also be on the grounds practicing. The main draw action begins Sunday for the ATP with a full slate of main draw play on tap from Monday, Aug. 16. The schedule for the week is available here.
All tickets, including full series, mini-plans, single session and hospitality packages, are now on sale and information about available tickets can be found here.
The Western & Southern Open, an ATP Masters 1000 and a WTA 1000, is part of the US Open Series and is held at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio.
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