Seventeen players who have won a Cincinnati Open doubles title will return to compete for the trophy at this year’s tournament. Forty-four of the 90 doubles players are competing in the Paris Olympics before coming to Cincinnati for the Aug. 11-19 event.
In addition to announcing the initial entries, the tournament has also revealed its first wild card team. The tournament is adding the 2024 Men’s NCAA Champion duo from Ohio State to the field.
Last year’s Cincinnati winners Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni return to defend their men’s title, while Taylor Townsend will defend her women’s title with new partner Katerina Siniakova. The pair recently won Wimbledon.
When 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna won this year’s Australian Open with Matthew Ebden, he became the oldest man in the Open Era to win a Major title as well as reach the No. 1 ranking for the first time. When Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic captured the French Open, Pavic completed a career Golden Slam. Great Britain’s Henry Patten made the home country proud when he and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara captured the Wimbledon title.
Cincinnati’s 2021 champions Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos return, sharing the world No. 1 ranking.
Robert Cash and JJ Tracy brought the NCAA men’s doubles title home to Ohio State earlier this year. Cash is a Columbus native, and Tracy was named the Buckeyes’ Athlete of the Year. The duo made their ATP debut in Newport, R.I., and advanced to the title match.
Siniakova has won two Majors this season with two different partners. In addition to her Wimbledon victory with Townsend, she won the French Open with Coco Gauff. Su-Wei Hsieh, the 2013 Cincinnati champion, and partner Elise Mertens won the Australian Open this year. The Italian team of Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani will play in the gold-medal match in Paris on Sunday.
Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko will try to duplicate their 2022 title run in Cincinnati, while Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez, finalists the past two years, are hoping the third time’s lucky.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 39, won the doubles title here 17 years ago in 2007. She and current partner Sofia Kenin have won two titles this year in Abu Dhabi and Miami.
Both the men’s and women’s doubles events will be 28-draws. Two additional men’s teams will be awarded wild cards while five women’s teams will be added through an on-site sign-in and three teams will be granted wild cards.
The women’s doubles final will take place Sunday night, Aug. 18, and the men’s doubles final is Monday, Aug. 19 before both singles finals.
Below are the initial Cincinnati Open doubles entries:
WTA Tour
Team Rank* – Name (Country) & Name (Country)
9 – Katerina Siniakova (Czechia) & Taylor Townsend (USA)
10 – Su-Wei Hsieh (Chinese Taipei) & Elise Mertens (Belgium)
20 – Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) & Ellen Perez (Australia)
31 – Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukraine) & Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia)
31 – Sara Errani (Italy) & Jasmine Paolini (Italy) 33 – Caroline Dolehide (USA) & Desirae Krawczyk (USA)
33 – Asia Muhammad (USA) & Erin Routliffe (New Zealand)
40 – Demi Schuurs (Netherlands) & Luisa Stefani (Brazil)
54 – Hao-Ching Chan (Chinese Taipei) & Veronika Kudermetova
55 – Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil) & Laura Siegemund (Germany)
56 – Marie Bouzkova (Czechia) & Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain)
60 – Sofia Kenin (USA) & Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)
67 – Giuliana Olmos (Mexico) & Alexandra Panova
70 – Ulrikke Eikeri (Norway) & Ingrid Neel (Estonia)
71 – Cristina Bucsa (Spain) & Yifan Xu (China)
73 – Miyu Kato (Japan) & Aldila Sutjiadi (Indonesia)
78 – Shuko Aoyama (Japan) & Eri Hozumi (Japan)
80 – Xinyu Wang (China) & Saisai Zheng (China)
85 – Hanyu Guo (China) & Monica Niculescu (Romania)
* WTA team rank determined by combination of players’ doubles rankings or special rankings
BOLD indicates former Cincinnati Open doubles champion
ATP Tour
Team Rank** – Name (Country) & Name (Country)
2 – Marcel Granollers (Spain) & Horacio Zeballos (Argentina)
7 – Rohan Bopanna (India) & Matthew Ebden (Australia)
11 – Rajeev Ram (USA) & Joe Salisbury (Great Britain)
15 – Marcelo Arevalo (El Salvador) & Mate Pavic (Croatia)
19 – Simone Bolelli (Italy) & Andrea Vavassori (Italy)
26 – Santiago Gonzalez (Mexico) & Edouard Roger-Vasselin (France)
28 – Maximo Gonzalez (Argentina) & Andres Molteni (Argentina)
28 – Holger Rune (Denmark) & Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece)
29 – Karen Khachanov & Andrey Rublev
30 – Harri Heliovaara (Finland) & Henry Patten (Great Britain)
36 – Sebastian Korda (USA) & Ben Shelton (USA)
39 – Neal Skupski (Great Britain) & Michael Venus (New Zealand)
39 – Jiri Lehecka (Czechia) & Casper Ruud (Norway)
42 – Kevin Krawietz (Germany) & Tim Puetz (Germany)
45 – Austin Krajicek (USA) & Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands)
46 – Wesley Koolhof (Netherlands) & Nikola Mektic (Croatia)
47 – Max Purcell (Australia) & Jordan Thompson (Australia)
47 – Marcelo Melo (Brazil) & Alexander Zverev (Germany)
47 – Arthur Fils (France) & Nicolas Jarry (Chile)
52 – Ivan Dodig (Croatia) & Jamie Murray (Great Britain)
56 – Nathaniel Lammons (USA) & Jackson Withrow (USA)
56 – Lloyd Glasspool (Great Britain) & Ugo Humbert (France)
59 – Hugo Nys (Monaco) & Jan Zielinski (Poland)
66 – Sadio Doumbia (France) & Fabien Reboul (France)
70 – Sander Gille (Belgium) & Joran Vliegen (Belgium)
590^ – Robert Cash (USA) & JJ Tracy (USA)
** – ATP team rank determined by combination of players’ singles or doubles rankings, whichever is highest
^ – wild card entry
BOLD indicates former Cincinnati Open doubles champion
Seven past champions, including 2023 winners Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic, headline the preliminary singles entry lists. The initial entrants include each player in the Top 40 of the world rankings, led by WTA No. 1 Iga Swiatek and ATP No. 1 Jannik Sinner.