The Cincinnati Open draw ceremony was held on Tuesday afternoon.
Neither Jannik Sinner nor Carlos Alcaraz is playing the second of two Masters 1000 tournaments on the North American hard-court swing, but that does not mean it will be a walk in the park for No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev. The German is in the same quarter as current Montreal semifinalist Rafael Jodar, and Novak Djokovic is also in the top half.
Zverev awaits either Cameron Norrie or Dino Prizmic in his opening match before possibly running into Tomas Martin Etcheverry or 2025 Cincinnati semifinalist Terence Atmane. Jodar and French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli are possible quarterfinal opponents for Zverev.
Djokovic, who has not played since losing to Sinner in the Wimbledon semis, will kick off his campaign against either Thiago Agustin Tirante or Jan Choinski. Jack Draper is a potential third-round foe for the 39-year-old Serb, which would a rematch of their epic Indian Wells fourth-round showdown — won by the Brit in a third-set tiebreaker. Draper, however, is struggling mightily with a seemingly never-ending arm injury. Alex de Minaur, Jiri Lehecka, Jakub Mensik, and Arthur Fils also find themselves in Djokovic’s section.
On the other side of the bracket, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Ben Shelton are on a collision course for the quarterfinals. Auger-Aliassime is hoping to bounce back after missing his home Masters 1000 event in Montreal because of a back issue. The other section in the bottom half is home to Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev, Joao Fonseca, and current Montreal semifinalist Brandon Nakashima. Fritz lifted the trophy in Washington, D.C. a couple of weeks ago but then lost right away in Montreal to Tirante.
First-round matches to watch in Cincinnati include Draper vs. Martin Landaluce, Marin Cilic vs. Daniel Merida, Grigor Dimitrov vs. Sebastian Baez, and an all-Dutch affair between Tallon Griekspoor and Botic van de Zandschulp.
Check out the full Cincinnati draw at the ATP website.
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The draw just reduced the odds of Zverev getting to the final. He’s even got a tricky opener either way.