Winston-Salem Last U.S. Stop: The final U.S. tournament of the season on the ATP World Tour, the Winston-Salem Open, features three players in the Top 20 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, led by top seed Richard Gasquet, wild card Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Cuevas. The trio are all making their Winston-Salem debut. Kevin Anderson is the reigning champion and 2014 winner Lukas Rosol is also in the field.

Gasquet Top Seed: For the second year in a row (third in past five years) a Frenchman is the top seed in the 48-player draw. Last year Gilles Simon was a wild card entry and top seed (l. 2R after bye). In 2012, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the top seed. Gasquet comes in as the top seed in an ATP World Tour tournament for the 13^th time in his career, second this year. He’s won three titles as the top seed: 2007 Mumbai, 2013 Moscow and Montpellier this year. The 30-year-old Frenchman enters with a 23-10 match record on the season. In February, he captured his 13^th career ATP World Tour title in Montpellier (d. Mathieu). He also reached his first quarter-final at Roland Garros (l. to Murray).

Defending Champion: South African native Kevin Anderson, who defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert in last year’s final, is making his fourth appearance in five years in Winston-Salem (6-2 record). Prior to last year, he reached the third round in 2014 (l. to Querrey) and the second round (after bye, l. to Gulbis) in 2012. This season, Anderson has been slowed by injuries. He retired from two matches and withdrew from eight tournaments due to left knee and right shoulder injuries. He also underwent minor left ankle surgery on March 15. His best results are quarter-finals following first-round byes at Auckland (l. to Sock), Nice (l. to Sousa), Nottingham (l. to Johnson) and ATP Masters 1000 Toronto (l. to Wawrinka). He is coming off a third-round showing at the Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati (l. to Murray).

Bautista Agut Makes Debut: No. 2 seed Bautista Agut is making his Winston-Salem debut. The 28-year-old Spaniard enters with a 34-15 match record on the season (23-8 on hard courts), highlighted by his third and fourth career ATP World Tour titles respectively at Auckland (d. Sock) and Sofia (d. Troicki).

Johnson Top American: No. 4 seed Steve Johnson is playing his first tournament as the top American in the Emirates ATP Rankings. The 26-year-old Californian surpasses John Isner, who has held the top American spot every week since 29 July, 2013. After a 6-14 start this season, Johnson has turned things around by compiling a 20-7 record in his last eight tournaments. This is Johnson’s fourth straight appearance in Winston-Salem and last year he reached the semi-finals (l. to Herbert). He is coming off his first career Masters 1000 quarter-final in Cincinnati (l. to Dimitrov). He also posted his second career Top 10 win over No. 10 Tsonga. Here is a look at Johnson’s “season of firsts”:

– Top American in Emirates ATP Rankings (career-high No. 21 on 25 July)

– Won ATP World Tour singles (Nottingham) and doubles titles (Nice w/Querrey)

– Top 10 win (d. No. 10 Gasquet in London/Queen’s Club)

– Fourth round at Wimbledon (l. to Federer)

Teenagers Meet Again: Junior rivals and #NextGen American teenagers Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe square off for the second time as pros after meeting five times in juniors (three in singles, two in doubles). Fritz is looking for his first win. In March, Tiafoe edged Fritz in three sets in the first round in Indian Wells. The 18-year-old rising stars booked a practice court together for Saturday morning but when the draw was released on Friday evening, plans changed. Both players have made huge jumps in the Emirates ATP Rankings from a year ago. Fritz, who has climbed from No. 678 at this time last year to a career-high No. 54, is making his Winston-Salem debut. Tiafoe, who was No. 275 at this time last year, is ranked a career-high No. 123. He won his first career ATP World Tour main draw match here last year (d. Duckworth).

Kokkinakis Returns: Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis makes his first main draw appearance on the ATP World Tour since last October in Stockholm. Last season, Kokkinakis reached a career-high No. 69 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on 18 June. He comes into Winston-Salem ranked No. 455. He has a protected ranking of No. 81.

Doubles Draw: The top two seeds in the draw are the first-time duo of Lukasz Kubot & Nenad Zimonjic and Mate Pavic & Michael Venus, who are four-time ATP World Tour winners this season. Last year’s champions Dominic Inglot & Robert Lindstedt are playing with different partners this year. Inglot is playing with Marin Draganja while Lindstedt is teaming with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. 

Butorac Farewell: Eric Butorac, a finalist last year with Scott Lipsky, is playing in his second-to-last pro tournament and final ATP World Tour event. He plans to retire after the US Open. On 3 August, Butorac was named by the USTA as Director of Professional Tennis Operations and Player Relations. Butorac, who also served as president of the ATP Player Council from 2014-16, captured 18 ATP World Tour doubles titles, winning at least once for 10 consecutive years from 2007-16. 

In Case You Missed It

Marin Cilic wins his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title over Andy Murray. Read

Find out how the Cincinnati final was won. Read

Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo become the first team in six years to win Toronto and Cincinnati back-to-back. Read

Veteran Florian Mayer is rediscovering his game on the Challenger Tour. Read

Roger Federer triumphs in Cincinnati Golden Moment voting. Read & Watch

Birthdays

21 August – Nicolas Almagro (31) 

Ranking Movers

+19 Yuichi Sugita (83)

+14 Florian Mayer (59)

+10 Grigor Dimitrov (24)

+10 John Millman (81)

+9 Borna Coric (40)

+9 Malek Jaziri (53)

Milestones

Winston-Salem Singles

Paul-Henri Mathieu – 274 wins

Yen-Hsun Lu – 148 wins

Malek Jaziri – 46 wins

Winston-Salem Doubles

Mate Pavic – 72 wins

Paolo Lorenzi – 24 wins

World No. 2 Andy Murray plays his 14th match in 15 days – with a globe-trotting trip from Rio de Janeiro to Cincinnati in between — when he meets Marin Cilic for the Western & Southern Open title on Sunday. Should he win his 13th ATP Masters 1000 title, Murray will inch within 815 points of Novak Djokovic in the Emirates ATP Race to London, which determines the year-end World No. 1.

Murray has enjoyed milestone after milestone since beginning his Rio campaign on August 7. The Scot played nine matches in eight days at the Olympics, including men’s doubles with older brother Jamie Murray and mixed doubles with Heather Watson. He edged Juan Martin del Potro in four hours and two minutes on August 14 to become the first two-time singles gold medalist in history.

After beating Juan Monaco in his opener this week, Murray defeated Kevin Anderson on Thursday for his 600th career win, Bernard Tomic on Friday for his 200th ATP Masters 1000 victory and Milos Raonic on Saturday for his 50th win of the season. Murray’s third Western & Southern Open title would be his 40th singles championship overall and the 19th consecutive ATP Masters 1000 crown won by himself, Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal (The Big Four).

The 29-year-old Djokovic is the youngest player to win an ATP Masters 1000 title — born a week after Murray in May 1987. Cilic, 27, could change all that to cap the greatest showing of his career at this level. Entering Cincinnati, Cilic had never reached an ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in 70 appearances. He was 0-8 lifetime in ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final matches. And his only two titles since reigning at the 2014 US Open came at the ATP World Tour 250 event in Moscow.

In the doubles final, ATP Masters 1000 Toronto champions Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo meet ATP Masters 1000 Madrid champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. The teams split two meetings in 2015 – Dodig and Melo winning en route to the Roland Garros championship before Rojer and Tecau avenged themselves during their title run at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

FEDEX ATP HEAD 2 HEAD – Singles Final
[1] Andy Murray (GBR) vs [12] Marin Cilic (CRO) – Murray Leads 11-2 Murray 2016 FastFacts
• Tournament Note: Owns a 22-0 record since Roland Garros and 33-1 since ATP Masters 1000 Madrid
• Captured 3rd Grand Slam title at Wimbledon (d. Tsonga in 5 sets, No. 9 Berdych and No. 7 Raonic)
• Became 1st British finalist at Roland Garros and 10th man to reach all 4 major finals in Open Era (l. to Djokovic)
• Fell to 0-5 in Australian Open finals with 4th championship match loss to No. 1 Djokovic
• With J. Murray, became 1st brothers in Open Era to reach singles and doubles finals at same major (Aus. Open)
• Made history at Rio Olympics as 1st player to win a 2nd singles gold medal (d. del Potro 75 in 4th after 4h2m)
• Celebrated 29th birthday by beating No. 1 Djokovic for 12th ATP Masters 1000 title at Rome
• Defeated No. 8 Berdych and No. 5 Nadal en route to ATP Masters 1000 Madrid final (l. to No. 1 Djokovic)
• Rallied from 76 30 down to beat No. 9 Raonic and become 1st 5-time London/Queen’s Club champion (est. 1890)
• Extended Davis Cup win streak to 14 matches with 3 victories to lead Great Britain past Japan 3-1 in 1R

Cilic 2016 FastFacts
• Tournament Note: Rallied for 46 63 75 win over Dimitrov in rain-delayed SF match that ended Sunday at 1:35 am
• Advanced to 3rd straight Wimbledon QF, falling to No. 3 Federer after leading by 2 sets and holding 3 MPs
• Reached finals at Marseille (l. to Kyrgios) and Geneva (d. Ferrer, l. to No. 4 Wawrinka)
• Also reached London/Queen’s Club SF (l. to No. 2 Murray in 3 sets) and Rio Olympics 3R (l. to Monfils in 3 sets)
• Fell to 0-8 lifetime in ATP Masters 1000 QFs at Indian Wells (l. to Goffin) – now 1-8 after beating Coric on Friday
• Snapped 11-match losing streak vs. Top 10 opponents with win over No. 10 Gasquet in Indian Wells 4R
• Helped Croatia reach Davis Cup SF with 3-2 wins over Belgium (d. Coppejans, l. to Goffin) and USA (l. to Sock after
leading by 2 sets, w/Dodig d. Bryan/Bryan, d. Isner)
• Withdrew from ATP Masters 1000 events at Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome due to knee injury

Marin Cilic laid it all on the line in a 1:35am finish at the Western & Southern Open as he battled into his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Grigor Dimitrov.

“It’s a big win for me, first time in a Masters 1000 final,” said Cilic, who will face World No. 2 Andy Murray. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m feeling good on the court. I played great this week. I’m excited to be in the final playing against Andy. He is in great form, playing great tennis. I hope tomorrow I’ll play a good match and I know I’ll have a good chance if I play well.”

At 27, Cilic is looking to become the youngest winner of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown. The right-hander, who this week announced that Jonas Bjorkman will start as his new coach in New York, had previously fallen in all eight quarter-final showings at this level.

After Wimbledon champion Murray had notched his 22^nd straight tour win over Milos Raonic in the first Cincinnati semi-final, rain pushed Cilic’s contest with Dimitrov into the early hours of Saturday morning.

Both players were searching for milestone moments in their careers, but it was Cilic who seized the opportunity, rallying from 2-4 down in the final set. The Croat reeled off four straight points from 0/30 to break Dimitrov at 5-5 and served out victory after two hours and 24 minutes.

“It was a Kings Island of a match,” said Cilic, referring to the iconic rollercoasters across the road from the Lindner Family Tennis Center. “It was definitely a tough match in grueling, heavy conditions. We obviously waited a long time, starting at 11:28pm. Mentally it was not easy. I was not playing too well today. I didn’t find the rhythm on my serve and I was just trying to stay in there in the third set and manage physically.

“[At 2-4] I was trying to give myself some positive thoughts to bounce back. I felt that I was close to playing better. I was just missing by small margins, so I focused on putting the ball in play a bit more and waiting for the right opportunity. I returned well on those occasions and it paid off.”

The 2014 US Open champion Cilic will attempt to overturn a 2-11 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Murray as he searches for his first victory over the Scot since Rotterdam 2014.

Cilic is chasing his 15^th tour-level title, having only lifted two trophies since his US Open triumph, both in Moscow (2014-15). This year, Cilic has finished runner-up in Marseille (l. to Kyrgios) and Geneva (l. to Wawrinka). He has a 32-17 match record in 2016.