It rained on and off for most of Sunday in Cincinnati, but Karen Khachanov and Denis Shapovalov made the most of it in more ways than one.

The singles stars enjoyed the delays with the centre court crowd, even briefly dancing to the music during a delay before battling past Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop 7-6(6), 6-7(12), 10-6 to reach the second round of the Western & Southern Open. 

“Seriously thanks to all the fans who stayed late and through the delays!!” Shapovalov wrote in an Instagram story. “Your energy the entire match was 🔥.”

In singles action, Botic van de Zandschulp set a second-round meeting with World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev when he overcame American Maxime Cressy 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

The Dutchman, who is making his debut in Cincinnati, fired seven aces and broke Cressy five times to advance after two hours and four minutes in a rain-disrupted clash at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

The 25-year-old now holds a 29-20 record this season, having enjoyed a run to his first tour-level final in Munich. Van de Zandschulp advanced to the second round in Montreal last week and will be aiming to go one step further in Ohio.

However, he faces a difficult second-round test against Medvedev, who leads their ATP Head2Head series 2-0. The 26-year-old ended van de Zandschulp’s dream US Open run at the quarter-final stage last season, when the Dutchman sat outside the Top 100. With his victory over Cressy, van de Zandschulp is up to No. 24 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

American wild card Mackenzie McDonald defeated Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-0, 6-1 in the only other singles main draw match of the day. Players who qualified included Lorenzo Musetti, Thanasi Kokkinakis, David Goffin and Lorenzo Sonego. 

It’s been one of those years for Matteo Berrettini, the kind where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The Italian kicked off 2022 in style with a career-best run to the Australian Open semi-finals. In February, he retired midway through his first-round matchup with American Tommy Paul in Acapulco due to abdominal woes. After Indian Wells, he sustained an injury to his right hand that necessitated surgery, forcing him to withdraw from the clay-court swing. Berrettini was just getting back into the swing of things on the grass, winning nine straight matches and sweeping back-to-back titles in Stuttgart and The Queen’s Club, when he tested positive for COVID-19. Wimbledon, where he would have been among the favourites, was suddenly out.

“I started to think it was like a prank or something, a joke, because I was feeling pretty good,” said Berrettini, the World No. 15, last week at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers. “It was really tough. I was by myself. I was quarantined. There wasn’t anybody to hug or watch a movie with. It was just me in my room trying not to think about what would happen, think about the future.”

For Berrettini, who dropped his opener against eventual titlist Pablo Carreno Busta in Montreal, 6-3, 6-2, that future is now. A big result this week at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati would do wonders to put him back in the running for a spot at the year-end Nitto ATP Finals. Currently 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, he’ll have his work cut out for him from the first round. On Tuesday, the 12th seed will open against Frances Tiafoe. He hasn’t faced the American since 2018, when he claimed a 6-3, 7-6(1) first-round decision on clay in Rome.

In addition to a personal-best fourth-round showing at Wimbledon, Tiafoe, No. 25 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, has played some of his best tennis this year on home soil, reaching quarter-finals in Houston and Washington, and a semi-final in Atlanta.

“I’m finally starting to play really well again,” said Tiafoe. “I was struggling there for a little bit. Injured earlier this year [elbow]. I was struggling. Wasn’t playing terribly, but wasn’t playing to where I was at the end of last year. From Wimbledon on, I thought I was playing really good tennis, having a lot of great wins, to get that big momentum again.”

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If anyone knows about injuries, it’s Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka. As fate would have it, the multi-Grand Slam champions will meet in the first round in Cincinnati in what will be their 22nd career encounter (Murray owns a 12-9 edge in ATP Head2Heads). The former World No. 1 Murray of Great Britain, of course, has undergone two hip surgeries, while the Swiss Wawrinka has only recently returned after recovering from surgery on his left foot (hence his No. 306 ranking). He’s played just 10 tour-level matches in 2022 (3-7), his best result a Round-of-16 showing in Rome.

Both players have had success on the hard courts of Ohio’s Queen City. Murray took the title in 2008 and 2011, while Wawrinka has reached the quarter-finals or better on four occasions.

The three-time major titlist Murray, currently No. 47 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, is hoping a deep run in Cincinnati will earn him a seeding at the US Open.

Other notable matches on the Tuesday slate include: Denis Shapovalov vs. Grigor Dimitrov, Holger Rune vs. Cameron Norrie, Karen Khachanov vs. Sebastian Korda, Aslan Karatsev vs. Brandon Nakashima, and Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Francisco Cerundolo.

Daniil Medvedev will forever remember the Western & Southern Open, but not just for the reason you would expect.

Medvedev claimed his first ATP Masters 1000 title three years ago in Cincinnati, which will forever remain a special moment for him. But a lot happened behind the scenes that fans did not know at the time.

On Sunday, the 26-year-old revealed that it was unlikely he would make it through one match at the Lindner Family Tennis Center that year. The week before, Medvedev advanced to his first Masters 1000 final in Montreal. He was invited on a charter flight to Cincinnati, but that is where things went awry.

“The plane was delayed, maybe there was a thunderstorm or something,” Medvedev said. “I remember coming to my room and I was the No. 9 seed, so I was just one out from [getting] a bye and playing Wednesday, so I had to play Tuesday. I came [to] my room at like 4:30 in the morning [on Monday].”

Since Medvedev was the ninth seed, he did not receive a bye in Ohio. Therefore, not only did he need to recover from a 4:30 a.m. hotel arrival on Monday to get used to the new conditions — he needed to be ready to play Tuesday.

“I was completely destroyed. I also played the Washington final. I was destroyed and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to try to play’, but I didn’t have [many] expectations,” Medvedev said. “Every match was the same, something was hurting, I was really tired, I was like, ‘Just go through this and let’s see how it goes’.”

The right-hander made it through his first-round match against Kyle Edmund 6-2, 7-5 and never looked back. The only set he dropped was in the semi-finals against Novak Djokovic, who the year before had completed the Career Golden Masters in Cincinnati.

“I have pretty amazing memories, especially playing my best matches, starting from the quarters and of course the match against Novak, where he was one set to love up. Amazing,” Medvedev said. “That’s why I always love coming here. The tournament didn’t really change from three years ago. I love this atmosphere, because I was always playing good here, especially starting from four years ago. I hope to do the same this year.” 

Medvedev arrives following an opening-round loss in Montreal to Nick Kyrgios. However, the recent Los Cabos champion is not stressing that defeat too much.

“Talking about the match with Nick, I played good. I lost the match, so the result was, let’s put it this way, terrible losing first round, if we don’t talk about who I lost and which match,” Medvedev said. “But because of… the last years and the way I’m feeling right now, I’m feeling confident for Cincinnati and [the] US Open itself.

The top seed, who is now a four-time Masters 1000 champion, will try to find the magic again in Cincinnati, beginning with his opening match against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.

“For sure [I] want to try to win as many matches as possible here to grow this confidence of winning matches for the US Open. But we’ll take it match by match. As we see in the draw, I feel that the draw is very, very packed,” Medvedev said. “Sometimes you have somebody retiring here and there, somebody tired from the season, maybe not in the best shape here. When I look at the draw I’m like wow, every match we have, even in the first round, is a tough match.”

The No. 1 team in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Rankings padded its lead on Sunday in the Montreal final. Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski won their sixth title since joining forces this year by edging Daniel Evans and John Peers 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 to claim their second ATP Masters 1000 crown of the season.

The Dutch-British duo dominated the opening set but dropped the second despite clawing back an early break, setting up a dramatic Match Tie-break. They raced out to a 7/2 lead in the tie-break, with Skupski flicking a brilliant lob on the stretch to extend their advantage, then held their nerve to close out the win from 8/6. It was their third Match Tie-break win of the week.

“We played four very close matches [this week],” Koolhof said before the trophy ceremony. “It’s never easy. These days there’s no such thing as easy matches anymore. Very happy with the way we played, our second Masters 1000 title of the year. Things are going great so let’s keep this run going.”

Skupski sealed the victory for the third seeds with a backhand return winner down the line as the pair improved to 6-2 in tour-level finals this season by notching its 45th match win. The red-hot duo has also claimed titles this year in Melbourne, Adelaide-2, Doha, Madrid and ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

“I think we’re still learning,” Skupski said of their blossoming partnership. “We’ve been together seven or eight months now, but it’s really going well. I love being on the court with Wes, it’s been a good partnership so far. Hopefully we can just keep working, progressing. It seems like we’re going to be able to go to Turin eventually and we’re looking forward to it.”

The duo, both individually in the Top 5 of the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, entered Montreal on a three-match losing streak but got back to winning ways at just the right time to win the title at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers. They dominated on first serve in the final, winning 79 per cent of points behind their first delivery.

“It sounds very cocky but we didn’t experience losing three in a row this year so far,” Koolhof said. “We were doing great, playing great. We already had five titles before that three-match losing streak. If you win every match, it’s tough. Mektic/Pavic did it last year. But sometimes to lose is also good to learn again. I think we found the right way again and let’s keep this up towards the end of the year.”

Former finalist David Goffin will need to work overtime if he is to return to the final weekend of the Western & Southern Open this year, but the Belgian completed the first part of his mission Sunday when he advanced through qualifying.

The 31-year-old rallied from a set down to defeat Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Hsin Tseng 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 after saving eight of nine break points to reach the main draw in Cincinnati. Goffin recently pushed Cameron Norrie to 7-5 in the fifth set in the Wimbledon quarter-finals but lost his opening match of the US Open Series in Washington, D.C. last week to Jack Sock.

Also advancing to the main draw is World No. 56 Jaume Munar, who has successfully qualified for all three American ATP Masters 1000 events (Indian Wells, Miami, Cincinnati) this season after taking down home hope Steve Johnson 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

For the third straight year, former UCLA standout Marcos Giron advanced to the main draw in Cincinnati after winning a tight battle against Italian Fabio Fognini, 7-6(9), 7-5. Fognini’s countryman, 27-year-old Lorenzo Sonego, breezed by Bradley Klahn 6-2, 6-4 in his second round qualifying match.

Rain halted play around 5:45pm local time (ET) for nearly an hour before matches resumed Sunday evening.

Playing under the lights, #NextGenATP Italian Lorenzo Musetti advanced past Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-4 to earn his debut at the Masters 1000 event. The top seed in qualifying, Musetti won his first tour-level title last month in Hamburg, where he beat Carlos Alcaraz in a thrilling three-set final.

Thanasi Kokkinakis, seeded 14th, is also through after edging third seed Ilya Ivashka 7-5, 1-6, 7-5. The Australian will be making his second main-draw appearance in Cincinnati following his run to the second round as a qualifier in 2015.

Probably “one of the worst years” of his career? Probably not anymore.

Pablo Carreno Busta gave that assessment of his 2022 campaign prior to Sunday’s Montreal final. The unseeded Spaniard supercharged his season by winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory against Hubert Hurkacz, claiming his seventh tour-level title.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be a Masters 1000 winner,” he said post-match. “It’s the best title of my career for sure and I don’t know how I’m feeling in this moment.

“I know that during all the week we worked very hard, also the weeks before. It’s very important to be very positive all the time. It’s not my best season this year. I lost some matches that probably other seasons I didn’t lose, but I just tried to continue believing in my team, in myself and in my game.”

The 31-year-old worked his way into the final by dialling up his aggression and locking in on return to control the last two sets. After being gifted a momentum-shifting break early in the second set, Carreno Busta earned his breakthrough in the third game of set three as he closed in on the milestone win. He sealed victory in style, converting on his third break point of the match at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.

“I lost the first set, just one break, but you know when you play against these kinds of players who have a really good serve it’s really tough to be there,” he assessed. “But I just continued believing because I know that I was playing better and better. I tried to be aggressive with my serves and I could make two breaks, enough to be a winner.”

The title is a reward for a stellar week for the former World No. 10 which included straight-sets upsets against Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner before his final victory against the eighth seed. With six wins this week, Carreno Busta improved to 28-17 on the season as he claimed his first title of the season. He is the sixth Spaniard to win an ATP Tour title this year.

Photo Credit: Mike Lawrence/ATP Tour

While neither Hurkacz or Carreno Busta was dominant on serve, both stayed out of trouble in the first two sets save for one loose service game apiece, both resulting in a break to love. Carreno Busta came undone in the sixth game of the opener, but after Hurkacz sealed the set with an ace, the Pole handed his opponent a lifeline with an error-strewn opening service game in set two.

There were no other break points in the first two sets and just one deuce game, on the Hurkacz serve midway through the second. Carreno Busta sent the match to a decider with an unreturned serve after just one hour, five minutes of play on Court Central. Forty minutes later, he finish the match as the Montreal champion.

Both competitors left the court prior to the deciding set, and Hurkacz immediately threatened at deuce on return before Carreno Busta’s punishing ground game earned him a break in the very next game as he broke for 2-1.

The point of the match came with the Spaniard serving at 3-2. Carreno Busta ran down a lob and used a desperate stab to float up a return with his back to the court, his momentum carrying him into the back wall. The sky-high lob troubled Hurkacz, who backed up to let it bounce, letting his opponent back into the point. The Spaniard then produced a grand finale with a flying backhand-volley winner, leading Hurkacz to send his racquet to the floor in frustration.

Carreno Busta was equally effective on both his first and second serves, winning more than 70 per cent of points off both deliveries. He faced just one break point in the match, when Hurkacz struck in the opening set.

As he turned the match around in set two, the unseeded champion excelled at converting points from attacking positions. According the the INSIGHTS: Conversion metric, he won all 16 points in which he gained an attacking advantage in the set, far exceeding the Tour average of 66 per cent.

Carreno Busta moved up nine places to No. 14 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings this week. He is also up to 11th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, soaring 18 places.

Hurkacz, who did not get off the court until near 1:30 a.m. local time after a doubles semi-final defeat in the early hours of Sunday morning, dropped his first final in his six tour-level title match. He moved up two spots to ninth in the Live Race To Turin this week.

Hurkacz won four three-setters to reach the Montreal final but could not repeat the feat on Sunday. Carreno Busta did not drop a set on the week until going the distance in the last two rounds.

The Montreal event announced a record attendance of 237,158 over the course of the tournament, 12,000 more than the previous record set in 2019.

Carlos Alcaraz is ready to embrace the new-found pressure that has been placed upon him as he prepares to make his second appearance at the Western & Southern Open.

The Spaniard came through qualifying in Cincinnati last season, but will compete as the third seed this week. He has already captured four titles this year, including two ATP Masters 1000 triumphs.

“Right now, I take each match as a challenge for me to stay the same as always. I am No. 4 in the world, one of the favourites to win this tournament, so it is a bit tough to handle the pressure,” Alcaraz said in his pre-tournament press conference on Sunday.

“But I am training at my best. I am training with the objective to improve and try to produce the game I produced during the clay season and in Miami. It is a challenge for me to be the same.”

The 19-year-old holds a 42-8 record on the season, highlighted by title runs at ATP Masters 1000 events in Miami and Madrid. However, Alcaraz arrives in Ohio off the back of his earliest exit of the season.

The World No. 4 lost in the second round in Montreal, but is looking to bounce back in Cincinnati. He is aiming to use his defeat against Tommy Paul as a valuable learning experience.

“I understood everything of what happened in Montreal. I couldn’t handle the pressure to be one of the favourites to win the tournament or be the ranking that I am right now. I come here to train and now show where I am,” Alcaraz said. “The kind of player I am means that I am trying to use the pressure in my favour. I know I am playing against the best players in the world, so I am going to try my best.”

Alcaraz feels that his success this season, which he described as ‘crazy’, has caused players to raise their level against him. However, the 19-year-old views it as a positive.

“I take it as a compliment. I think all the players push themselves to be better on court against me,” Alcaraz said. “I think if they don’t play aggressively or at a high level, it is going to be a really tough match for them, so I am going to take that as a compliment.”

Alcaraz will face Nikoloz Basilashvili or Mackenzie McDonald in his opening match at the hard-court Masters 1000 event. The Spaniard will be aiming for a deep run in Cincinnati as he looks to strengthen his position in second in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

Rafael Nadal is excited at the opportunity to return to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings over the next month, but believes it will not be an easy journey as he looks to prioritise his health.

The Spaniard will climb to top spot if he wins the Western & Southern Open title and current World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev fails to reach the quarter-finals in Cincinnati.

“It means a lot to me to have that opportunity [to rise to No. 1]. Something that I didn’t expect could happen again. The main thing is to stay healthy and play the events that I want to play,” Nadal said in his pre-tournament press conference on Sunday. “I will not play more than what I believe works well for my body.

“I am going to put all my efforts into every single event I play. It is something that doesn’t matter if I have the chance to be No. 1, but I am happy to be in this position and if it happens, I will be very happy.”

Nadal, who triumphed in Ohio in 2013, is competing at the ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time since 2017 and has not played a match since he was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon last month due to an abdominal injury.

The 36-time Masters 1000 champion will face Borna Coric or a qualifier in his opening clash and knows that it will take time for him to regain his match sharpness, with patience the key.

“You need to know that when you come back after a while that things aren’t going to be perfect,” Nadal said. “You can’t expect to play at an amazing level from the beginning. Knowing that you [need to] be humble enough to fight with the tools that you have at the beginning to win the first match. Then when you win a match or two matches things change and you start to feel competitive again.

“If you are playing well, and I think I am playing more or less ok, you have some good feelings on court. But competition is different and you need to accept that things are going to be difficult, even more so in a Masters 1000 because when you come back, even at a Grand Slam, if you are lucky with the draw, even if you aren’t playing at a high level you have a chance to win a couple of matches. But at a Masters 1000, opponents are very demanding right from the beginning so you need to play at a high level and that is what I am going to try to do.”

The second seed, who has won four titles in 2022, holding a 35-3 record on the season, suffered an abdominal injury during his quarter-final match against Taylor Fritz at The Championships. The injury forced him to withdraw ahead of his scheduled semi-final clash against Nick Kyrgios and it is a situation he is still monitoring.

“I am happy to be back in Cincinnati after a couple of years without the chance of being able to be here. I had a small tear in the abdomen, so it is dangerous,” Nadal said. “The abdominal is a place that is dangerous because on every serve you put a lot of effort there. I am trying to do things properly, trying to be a bit more conservative. I hope I can be ready for the action here.

“I want to play tennis again on the Tour. I am having a good season and I am enjoying it. I want to enjoy this week in Cincinnati,” the Spaniard later added.