Isner, McDonald Awarded Final Singles Wild Cards

Americans John Isner and Mackenzie McDonald have been awarded the final wild cards for the Western & Southern Open men’s singles field. 

Isner has reached 31 finals during his career, winning 16 titles. He achieved a career-best ranking of No. 8 in 2018 after winning the ATP Masters 1000 title in Miami and then advancing to the Wimbledon semifinals. He finished 12 consecutive seasons ranked inside the ATP’s Top 25. The 6-foot-10 Isner is the ATP Tour’s all-time ace leader with 14,365 over his career. 

A former Western & Southern Open finalist, Isner will be playing the tournament for the 16th time. In 2013, he was runner-up to Rafael Nadal after defeating three straight Top 10 opponents: No. 10 Milos Raonic, No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 7 Juan Martin del Potro. The 38-year-old owns a 23-15 record at the event, having also reached the semifinals in 2017 and the quarterfinals last year. 

Before his pro career, Isner was a four-year All-American at the University of Georgia where he won the 2005 NCAA doubles title, the 2007 team title and reached the 2007 singles final.

McDonald has achieved his career-best results after undergoing hamstring surgery in 2019. Since returning to action, he reached his first career final in 2021 at Washington, D.C., and in 2022, he broke into the Top 50 of the rankings for the first time. This season, he upset defending champion Nadal at the Australian Open and has reached a pair of semifinals as well as three quarterfinals. 

In 2013, McDonald made his ATP Tour debut at the Western & Southern Open as an 18-year-old, playing his way into the main draw after receiving a qualifying wild card. He will be making his sixth appearance at the tournament. 

An All-American in each of his three seasons at UCLA, McDonald won the NCAA singles and doubles titles in 2016 before embarking on his pro career. 

Isner and McDonald join main draw singles wild cards JJ Wolf and Stan Wawrinka.

Together with the women’s field, the Western & Southern Open will feature 11 past champions, 18 Grand Slam winners who have claimed a collective 56 Grand Slam titles and nine players who have held the No. 1 ranking.