The world’s top men’s and women’s tennis players again highlight the initial singles entry list for the 2022 Western & Southern Open, including two-time winner and 23-time major champion Serena Williams.
The fields include the world’s top 41 men and 39 women, led by No.1 players Daniil Medvedev and Iga Swiatek. Together, 11 former tournament winners and 19 Grand Slam major champions are scheduled to compete in Cincinnati.
The tournament will welcome five former champions in the WTA field, featuring two-time champions Williams (2015, 2014) and Victoria Azarenka (2020, 2013), as well as winners Madison Keys (2019), Garbiñe Muguruza (2017) and Karolina Pliskova (2016). In addition to Medvedev who won in 2019, five other former men’s champions on the entry list in 2022 include Alexander Zverev (2021), Grigor Dimitrov (2017), Marin Cilic (2016) and Rafael Nadal (2013), as well as two-time champion Novak Djokovic (2020, 2018).
The women’s field is also highlighted by 13 champions of Grand Slam majors. In addition to Williams, Swiatek, Azarenka and Muguruza, major champions include Naomi Osaka, Emma Raducanu, Simona Halep, Elena Rybakina, Bianca Andreescu, Jelena Ostapenko, Barbora Krejcikova, Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitova. Seven entrants have held WTA’s No. 1 ranking, with former winners Azarenka, Muguruza, Pliskova and Williams being joined by three-time Cincinnati finalist Halep, Kerber and current No. 1 Swiatek.
The six men’s Grand Slam major champions in the field include Medvedev, Djokovic, Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem and Cilic. In addition to current No. 1 Medvedev, Djokovic and Nadal are former No. 1 players.
Joining 19-year-old Raducanu in the youth charge are teens Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernandez in the women’s draw, and Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune in the men’s draw. Boris Becker won the tournament as a 17-year-old, but any of the three teen women would become the youngest winner of the women’s title in the professional era of the event (since 1969).
The top eight seeds in both draws will receive first round byes. Eight women and seven men will be added to the fields through a two-round qualifying tournament that will be held Aug. 13-14. Four men and five women will be awarded wild card entries into the main draw singles fields. One additional player may be added into each draw as a special exempt.
Tournament action will take place Aug. 13-21, where first serve will take place at 10 a.m. on Aug. 13 for the qualifying tournament. The men’s and women’s singles finals will take place on Sunday, Aug. 21. The schedule is available here.
All individual daily tickets for all sessions are on sale now. Multi-day ticket packages are sold out. Information about available tickets can be found at wsopen.com/tickets.
The Western & Southern Open, an ATP Masters 1000 and a WTA 1000, is part of the US Open Series and is held at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio.
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