Rain has delayed the start of Monday’s play at the Western & Southern Open, where Felix Auger-Aliassime’s big-hitting clash with Matteo Berrettini headlines the Day 2 schedule in Cincinnati.

The 12th-seeded Auger-Aliassime and seven-time ATP Tour champion Berrettini were due to step on Grandstand at 11 a.m. local time at the hard-court ATP Masters 1000 event, but play will now not start before midday due to the weather.

When the rain clears in Ohio, it will be a sixth tour-level meeting between Auger-Aliassime and Berrettini. The latter leads 4-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, but Auger-Aliassime triumphed in the pair’s only previous Cincinnati meeting in 2021.

Home favourite John Isner and Jordan Thompson are second on the Grandstand schedule, with the winner set to face top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the second round. ATP Tour stars in action later on centre court include defending champion Borna Coric, who plays Sebastian Korda. In the night session, 16th seed Alexander Zverev takes on Grigor Dimitrov.

On Stadium 3, wild cards Brandon Nakashima and Stan Wawrinka will do battle for the right to take on 10th seed Frances Tiafoe in the second round.

Jannik Sinner captured the biggest title of his career last week at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers, where he lifted his maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week as of Monday, 14th August 2023.

No. 5 Holger Rune, +1 (Career High)
The 20-year-old’s climb up the Pepperstone ATP Rankings hit new heights on Monday when he cracked the Top 5 for the first time. The Dane broke into the Top 100 for the first time in January 2022, before he made his Top 10 debut last November after winning the Rolex Paris Masters. Rune has captured four tour-level titles and will aim to add to his collection at this week’s Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

No. 6 Jannik Sinner, +2 (Career High)
The 21-year-old has also jumped to a career-high No. 6 after becoming just the second Italian to win a Masters 1000 title (also Fabio Fognini, Monte-Carlo 2019). Sinner defeated Alex de Minaur in the Toronto final to improve to 18-4 at Masters 1000 events this season. He is also the youngest Canadian Masters 1000 champion since then-20-year-old Alexander Zverev in 2017.

No. 12 Alex de Minaur, +6 (Career High)
The 24-year-old enjoyed a breakthrough Masters 1000 run in Toronto, where he reached his first final at that level. The Australian defeated seeds Cameron Norrie, Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev before falling against Sinner. De Minaur is up six spots to No. 12 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

No. 23 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, +14 (Career High)
The Spaniard has climbed into the Top 25 after advancing to his second Masters 1000 semi-final in Toronto. Davidovich Fokina, who lost in the Monte-Carlo final in 2022, earned a Top 10 victory against Casper Ruud in Canada.

Other Notable Top 100 Movers
No. 36 Andy Murray, +4
No. 43 Mackenzie McDonald, +16 (Career High)
No. 48 Aleksandar Vukic, +14 (Career High)
No. 54 Marcos Giron, +16
No. 61 Matteo Arnaldi, +5 (Career High)
No. 70 Max Purcell, +8
No. 78 Thanasi Kokkinakis, +8
No. 82 Fabian Marozsan, +7 (Career High)
No. 91 Cristian Garin, +10
No. 92 Federico Coria, +11
No. 95 Taro Daniel, +20

Italian Jannik Sinner further boosted his chances of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time after winning his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.

The 21-year-old enjoyed a standout week in Toronto, defeating Matteo Berrettini, Gael Monfils, Tommy Paul and Alex de Minaur, climbing two spots to fourth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin

Sinner (4,185 points) leapfrogged fifth-placed Stefanos Tsitsipas (3,445 points) and sixth-placed Andrey Rublev (3,280 points) after becoming the second first-time Masters 1000 champion of the season. Rublev triumphed in Monte-Carlo in April.

Two years ago, Sinner replaced Matteo Berrettini as an alternate mid-tournament at the Pala Alpitour in Turin. This season, Sinner, who is 18-4 at Masters 1000 events in 2023, is trying to qualify directly into the field for the first time.

Australian Alex de Minaur also climbed into Nitto ATP Finals contention after reaching his first Masters 1000 final in Toronto. The 24-year-old, who is bidding to make his debut in Turin, jumped five spots to 10th in the Live Race. Earlier this season, De Minaur lifted the biggest trophy of his career at the ATP 500 in Acapulco.

Carlos Alcaraz became the first player to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held in Turin from 12-19 November, when he defeated Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.

The day before Holger Rune flew to Toronto to begin his North American hard-court swing, he practised with a special training partner: Caroline Wozniacki, who last week in Montreal returned to action for the first time since the 2020 Australian Open.

Wozniacki inspired Rune and many other children in Denmark by reaching World No. 1 and winning a major title at the 2018 Australian Open.

“My first memory of her is watching her from TV and she was playing all the tournaments and we were on the couch, all the family, watching her,” Rune told ATPTour.com. “The memory that stands out was when she won the Australian Open. We were all watching. It was crazy to watch a Danish player win a Grand Slam in an incredible match, so it was a big inspiration.”

At the time, Rune was a 14-year-old with big dreams. Following in Wozniacki’s footsteps, he has proven himself one of the best players in the world. On Monday, he cracked the top five in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time at World No. 5.

On Sunday afternoon at the Western & Southern Open, the Danish stars spent time together for a special interview. During the session, Wozniacki praised her countryman’s efforts.

“It’s just been awesome to see the quick progression that Holger’s been making and now obviously being top five in the world is so special,” Wozniacki said. “It’s such a small country, so when anyone does something big in sports or in anything else, you always root for them and it’s just been so fun to watch Holger just consistently play so well.”

Holger Rune and Caroline Wozniacki spend time together in Cincinnati before the start of the Western & Southern Open.” />
^{Photo: ATP Tour}
For his part, Rune has been impressed by Wozniacki’s successful return to action. The former World No. 1 is competing in the second tournament of her comeback in Cincinnati, where she first played 18 years ago. Rune was two years old at the time.

“It’s difficult after three years without tennis to come back and win matches. It’s a big, big thing to do,” Rune said. “For sure I think she’s playing really well, to be honest.”

Wozniacki later said: “He also kicked my butt a couple of weeks ago.”

“I don’t know about that!” Rune quickly replied.

“I’ve been on the other side of the ball and it’s coming at you really fast,” Wozniacki added.

“She has an incredible backhand, but obviously men’s and women’s tennis is very different,” Rune said of Wozniacki’s game. “Her backhand and her fighting spirit I feel are her two best qualities. It took her to World No. 1 and Grand Slam champion.”

Rune was outside the world’s Top 850 when Wozniacki played the 2020 Australian Open. Now the 20-year-old is making a mark of his own.

“Nobody ever won a Grand Slam in singles in Denmark. So to see her do it was like, ‘Okay, maybe I can also do it one day’,” Rune said. “It just makes the belief more real if you see somebody do it.”

Daniil Medvedev, the 2019 Western & Southern Open, is optimistic for an uptick in form in Cincinnati after a disappointing quarter-final exit in Toronto to eventual finalist Alex de Minaur.

“It’s my last tournament before the US Open, important tournament, Masters 1000. In Toronto, unfortunately I didn’t do everything that I wanted to do with my game,” Medvedev said. “So I have a couple of days to try to get it working here and then of course, most important is going to be to try to win the matches. The draw is pretty packed, I would say very strong, which is normal. So looking forward [to it].”

Medvedev held leads against De Minaur in each set, but was unable to put away the Australian and paid for it with an exit in the last eight. But the good news for the No. 3 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings is that he believes he knows what was off with his game in Canada.

“I felt like I was missing a little bit one shot where I could just hit the guy straight away and put him in trouble,” Medvedev said. “So I’m going try to do this. Two, three days I have in practice and hopefully I can integrate it also during the tournament.

“But the thing is that the practice is so different to [the] tournament. So as I said, you try to work on something in practice, but it really doesn’t matter [unless] you’re going to be able to do it in the match. But that’s what you’re trying to do.”

The 27-year-old will take confidence knowing he owns a 48-10 record this season and is in third place in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, just 645 points behind second-placed Novak Djokovic.

Medvedev is trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the fifth consecutive year. He has already won five titles this season, including ATP Masters 1000 victories in Miami and Rome.

This historically has been a good stretch of the season for Medvedev. Four of his six Masters 1000 triumphs have come from Canada through the end of the year. Despite his quarter-final loss in Toronto, he is ready to turn the page beginning with an intriguing clash against Washington champion Daniel Evans or Lorenzo Musetti.

“In Toronto, not a bad tournament, but I was not at my best,” Medvedev said. “So I hope… to try to raise my level higher and higher and to play at my best before the US Open.”

Sinner defeated De Minaur 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers on Sunday on the back of overpowering the Aussie from the back of the court. Both players had little interest in coming to the net to finish points. Sinner appeared at the net only four times (won 4/4), while De Minaur won 5/9 at the front of the court. He needed to camp there more often.

Both players elected to stay in their comfort zone from the back of the court, which provided the Italian with a huge strategic advantage. Sinner won an impressive 57 per cent (44/77) of points from the baseline, while De Minaur could only muster 39 per cent (28/72). This style of play was always going to favour the heavy-hitting Italian, as he could extract error after error from De Minaur in gruelling back-court exchanges.

Baseline Points Won
Set 1: Sinner = 52% (23/44); De Minaur = 44% (18/41)
Set 2: Sinner = 64% (21/33); De Minaur = 32% (10/31)
Total: Sinner = 57% (44/77); De Minaur = 39% (28/72)

The shot that broke down the most was De Minaur’s forehand, with 21 errors and a solitary winner. Sinner committed 18 forehand errors but collected four winners. Sinner’s primary pattern was to constantly attack De Minaur’s flat forehand, taking away his time to prepare his hands and feet correctly.

De Minaur’s backhand is typically a rock, but this side also bled more errors than usual. De Minaur committed 17 backhand errors, with no groundstroke winners. Sinner committed 14 backhand errors, with two winners. It didn’t matter whether the ball flowed through the Deuce or Ad court. Sinner was almost always the player leaning on the ball, while the Aussie was hard-pressed to apply the pressure necessary to force the errors he required.

Alex de Minaur was outgunned by Jannik Sinner in the Toronto final.” />

Average Groundstroke Speed
Forehands: Sinner = 127 km/h; De Minaur = 110 km/h
Backhands: Sinner = 120 km/h; De Minaur = 102 km/h

Sinner enjoyed an 18 kmph average speed difference with backhands and a 17 kmph average increase in forehand speed. With the ball constantly returning at a significantly faster speed than it left, De Minaur’s groundstroke game broke down as the match progressed.

Sinner was happy to blast his groundstrokes cross court all day long and generally avoid going down the line too much, staying away from lower percentage patterns of play.

Sinner Groundstroke Direction
Forehands = 65% cross court; Backhands = 67% cross court

De Minaur, on the other hand, clearly tried to play away from Sinner’s more potent forehand wing, avoiding Deuce court rallies where his forehand was directly pitted against Sinner’s.

De Minaur Groundstroke Direction
Forehands = 44% cross court; Backhands = 81% cross court

This was always going to be a tough match-up for De Minaur, as Sinner employs a similar back-court game style but with a lot more firepower. Running and defending for a living gets more challenging as you progress through the draw.

This is a well-deserved maiden Masters 1000 victory for Sinner. It’s also an excellent learning opportunity for De Minaur, as he must further develop his game to be more of an all-court threat or create more pressure from the back of the court, especially with depth, height and superior court position.

Sinner took home a Masters 1000 title. De Minaur took home the knowledge of the upgrades needed to capture one for himself in the near future.

Novak Djokovic long ago let go the disappointment he felt after losing the Wimbledon final to Carlos Alcaraz.

“It’s not the first [nor] the last match that I lost, so I was over it in a day,” Djokovic said ahead of the Western & Southern Open. “Obviously, I needed some really good rest after that, and some time with my family, and that’s what I did. So, of course, I was regretting not using the chances during that final.

“I was [a] set up and had some set points in the second and I felt that I was close to being in the lead. And then, obviously, some break points in the fifth. It was a close match, but well deserved from his side, because to win he played better in the important moments, and that’s what I said after the final. I think he was a deserved winner and that’s it really, pretty much. You move on.”

The 36-year-old was one win from claiming his third major title of the season. This year’s Australian Open and Roland Garros champion was well-positioned to make another push for the Grand Slam — winning all four majors in a year — but is happy to put that chase behind him and pursue new goals.

“I need to obviously move on and try to regroup and find motivation for what’s coming up, and all the challenges that are ahead of me, and that’s why I’m here,” Djokovic said. “Otherwise, if I’m not motivated, I wouldn’t be here. Now, after many years of professional tennis, I feel like I have a choice to play what I really want to play. And I really wanted to be here in Cincinnati, and of course, [the] US Open [is] around the corner.”

Cincinnati has been a special event for Djokovic. In 2018, the Serbian completed the Career Golden Masters by winning all nine ATP Masters 1000 titles at the tournament. He most recently competed in Cincinnati in 2019. So after a break, he is thrilled to return to action in Ohio.

“A lot of family time, resting and preparation for the tournaments here on American soil. It’s been two years since I was last in America. So, of course, I’m very excited and was very much looking forward to coming,” Djokovic said. “I haven’t been in Cincinnati since 2019, so nice to be back. Lots of young fans that I’ve seen the last couple of days on the practice courts, which is always great to see and people love their tennis.”

Djokovic practised at the venue for the first time this year Saturday evening on centre court. Many fans waited to take a close look at the 38-time ATP Masters 1000 champion’s game.

“It was amazing, to be honest. I made a joke with my coach, and I asked him whether we are [at] the right court because we thought it [was] a match. He actually said he thought it was a match happening because it [was] a match court,” Djokovic said. “It’s really amazing. I’m very grateful for the presence of so many people on a practice session, which is amazing. Again, I did experience some tournaments throughout the world, similar atmospheres in terms of the great attendance on the practice courts.

“But I guess, for a while, nothing of this intensity in terms of the presence and the participation of the crowd, on the practice court. The practice points that we played today, the atmosphere was great. People were really into it. As I mentioned before, lots of young fans, which is always something I wish to see. That gives me even more inspiration to play my best tennis in the tournament.”

Djokovic will begin his Cincinnati run against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina or Tomas Martin Etcheverry. Although this will be his first match since his heartbreaking Wimbledon defeat, he is ready to move forward.

“I like the feeling that I have after 20 plus years of professional tennis. There’s still fire going,” Djokovic said. “There’s still that drive and motivation to really come at the biggest events in sport and try to win, try to win titles and try to bring some good sensation to the crowds.”