Western & Southern Open 2013 champion Rafael Nadal returns to Cincinnati for the first time in five years tonight, and it’s as if he has turned back the hands of time. Now a 22-time Grand Slam major champion, including two majors this year, he is currently world-ranked No. 3 and could return to the top spot if he wins the tournament and current No. 1 Daniil Medvedev fails to reach the quarterfinals. At age 36 Nadal would become the tournament’s all-time oldest champion dating back to 1899!
But he has a long way to go before that. Tonight he will be challenged by Borna Coric, who has been ranked as high as No. 12 in the world. Nadal and Coric have split four previous meetings but Coric got the win in Cincinnati in 2016. It’s game on!