Coco Gauff, Novak Djokovic To Headline Cincinnati Open

Former champions Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic will headline the Cincinnati Open which runs Aug. 5-18 tournament at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

The world’s No. 1 ranked players, Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner, will both come back to defend their titles. Both are in the Wimbledon semifinals this week.

They will be joined by six other Cincinnati Open champions in the field, led by three-time winner Djokovic (2023, 2020, 2018) as well as Gauff (2023), Madison Keys (2019), Alexander Zverev (2021), Daniil Medvedev (2019) and Grigor Dimitrov (2017).

Every player who has won a title this season is in the field, led by Carlos Alcaraz who has already claimed five and will play the Wimbledon semifinals on Friday against Taylor Fritz. The 2024 Cincinnati Open finalists Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula are tied for the most WTA titles this season with three apiece. Those champions also include the winners of this year’s other 1000-level tournaments, where Alcaraz, Sabalenka and 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva have won two apiece with the other titles being collected by Amanda Anisimova, Jasmine Paolini, Jack Draper, Jakub Mensik and Casper Ruud.

“We look forward to welcoming the world’s best tennis stars to compete for the Cincinnati Open title in August,” said Tournament Director Bob Moran. “We have received a lot of excitement from the players about coming back to see our transformed campus and experiencing the new player amenities. Players and fans alike will enjoy the re-imagined venue and world-class atmosphere as the sport’s best compete for the title.”

There will be 96 players in each singles field this year, up from 56 in 2024. The initial entrants include:

• Players representing 37 nations. The United States has the largest contingent in the field with 24 players, including six who are in the Top 10 of their tour’s rankings: No. 2 Gauff, No. 3 Pegula, No. 8 Keys, No. 10 Emma Navarro, No. 5 Fritz and No. 10 Ben Shelton.
• Forty-nine players who have won a title this year are entered, and collectively they have won all 65 of this season’s tournaments.
• A total of 119 players who have won a title during their career, combining for 746 trophies. Djokovic has the most with 100. Six other players have claimed 20 or more: Petra Kvitova, 31; Alexander Zverev, 24; Iga Swiatek, 22; Carlos Alcaraz, 21; Aryna Sabalenka, 20; Daniil Medvedev, 20.
• Sixteen players with college tennis experience, including former University of Kentucky standout Gabriel Diallo, who won his first career ATP Tour title last month, and Mason native Peyton Stearns, who won NCAA singles and team titles for the University of Texas.
• Five teenagers, led by 18-year-olds Andreeva, who is ranked No. 7 on the WTA Tour, and Brazilian Joao Fonseca. They are joined by a trio of 19-year-olds: Maya Joint, Jakub Mensik and Learner Tien.

Former Cincinnati Open finalist and two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova is one of nine players to enter using a protected ranking following an extended layoff. The others are Nick Kyrgios, Jenson Brooksby, Sebastian Ofner, Bianca Andreescu, Sorana Cirstea, Marketa Vondrousova, Zhu Lin and Anastajia Sevastova.