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Carlos Moya was presented with a chance to make history at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati 20 years ago and he grabbed it with both hands. The former No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings captured the crown at the ATP Masters 1000, something no other Spaniard had done before him. In the summer of 2002, the Mallorcan beat World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 7-6(5) to achieve his feat. A glass ceiling had been smashed by a player who was brave, determined and, above all, ready to pounce when opportunity knocked.

It was 11 August 2002 and sport threw up a conundrum that Moya was more than ready to solve.

He had made his way through a draw that was at the mercy of his forehand, a stroke that, with the aid of the Ohio sun, was capable of bringing any player to his knees. It proved too much for French player Ciryl Saulnier and the Dutch Sjeng Schalken, before the American Michael Chang and German Rainer Schuettler also succumbed to its venom. In the semi-final, Juan Carlos Ferrero, just a 22-year-old on his way to the elite, was unable to deal with the barrage.

However, on the day of the final, Cincinnati was about to throw a curveball.

A summer tournament whose intense sunshine would habitually test the fitness of players to the limit had clouded over from one day to the next. As dawn broke, it was considerably overcast, the mercury had plummeted and the water that had been so sought-after during the days of scorching heat, was threatening to fall from the sky. For the players, affected as they are by the impact of temperature on the behaviour of tennis balls, it was a complete game changer.

It had been half a decade since an American man reached three ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals in the same season, a drought 11th seed Taylor Fritz ended on Thursday at the Western & Southern Open. With his fourth consecutive win over 2021 runner-up Andrey Rublev, 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-5, the 24-year-old earned a place among the last eight and his first matchup with World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

Fritz has now reached at least the quarter-finals in Indian Wells, Monte Carlo and Cincinnati, the BNP Paribas Open ultimately resulting in his first-ever Masters 1000 title (def. Rafael Nadal, 6-3, 7-6(5)).

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This time last year, Fritz was outside the Top 40 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, a string of frustrating opening-round losses in Washington, Toronto and Cincinnati weighing him down. He returned to Ohio in 2022 a different player in so many respects. Last month, the 13th-ranked Californian, whose entourage these days regularly includes a trail of Netflix cameramen seemingly documenting his every move, pushed through to his first major quarter-final at Wimbledon.

“I was playing pretty bad this time last year,” said Fritz. “It’s weird, because last year, I kind of just started playing really good tennis late in the year — the October [edition of] Indian Wells, is kind of where it all started changing for me. I started gaining confidence, playing really good. Up until that point, my ranking had dropped a tonne.”

The rapid rise of Carlos Alcaraz continues this week at the Western & Southern Open, where his 7-6(4), 6-1 victory against Marin Cilic on Thursday made him the event's youngest quarter-finalist since Andy Murray 16 years ago.

The Spaniard could move past Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev to No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings by winning his third ATP Masters title of the season in Cincinnati. After reaching the quarter-finals, he remains at No. 4 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings but is less than 600 points shy of the second spot.

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Alcaraz showed great resilience against Cilic on centre court, rebounding strongly after missing out on two set points as he attempted to serve out the first set.

"I know that Marin is a really aggressive player. I had to be really focussed on the match," Alcaraz said after his victory. "I knew that it was going to be a tough match, that I had to be [mentally] in the match all the time. I knew that I was going to have my chances to break his big serve. So I'm really happy with the performance and the focus in the match."

A set-and-a-break deficit. Two match points faced. No problem for Felix Auger-Aliassime.

The Canadian was in deep trouble Thursday evening in Cincinnati, but rallied past Jannik Sinner 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open.

"Jannik was just playing too good. I didn't have a great start, I was missing a lot. But I just had no time. He was playing so fast, so precise, serving well. For a set and a half, it was just too good," Auger-Aliassime said in his on-court interview. "That game he broke me in the second, returning on the baseline for three returns in a row, you can't do much better, so I had to give it to him.

"But at the end, I was still on the court trying to find ways, trying to fight and trying to see how I could make him miss a few more balls and to put myself in a competing position and I did that well... To come back and play that way in the tie-break and the third set, that means a lot to me going forward."

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In Thursday's matchup between the reigning US Open champions and the this year's Australian Open winners, the New York titlists emerged victorious at the Western & Southern Open.

Top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury edged the Australian duo of Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios 6-7(3), 6-2, 10-8, claiming victory without dropping serve in Cincinnati. The American-British duo saved the only two break points they faced in the opening game of the match but still needed to claim a tight Match Tie-break to earn their first victory since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals.

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After dropping the first-set tie-break and dominating the second set with two breaks, Ram/Salisbury required three match points to seal the Match Tie-break as the Aussies threatened to come back from 6/9 down.

Behind a 91 per cent (41/45) win rate on first serve, the pair advanced to face Wednesday winners Karen Khachanov and Denis Shapovalov in the quarter-finals.

Prize money for men and women at the US Open will top more than $60 million for the first time, the USTA announced on Thursday.

With input from the ATP and WTA Player Councils, the organisation increased prize money in the earlier rounds and for the qualifying event.

Players who lose in the first round of the main draw will earn $80,000, an increase of 85 per cent since 2016. The US Open qualifying event will award $6.26 million in prize money, which is up 223 per cent from 2016. Final-round qualifying competitors will earn $44,000.

The men's and women's singles champions will each receive $2,600,000 for lifting the trophy and the finalists will be awarded $1,300,000.

The 2022 US Open will be played from 29 August through 11 September. Qualifying begins on 23 August.

Stefanos Tsitsipas continued to look at home in Cincinnati on Thursday at the Western & Southern Open.

The Greek, who has reached the semi-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 event in each of the past two years, advanced to the quarter-finals with a dominant 6-3, 6-3 win against Diego Schwartzman.

Earlier this season, the pair had played two tight three-setters. But Tsitsipas never allowed Schwartzman to get comfortable on the Ohio hard court, triumphing in one hour and minutes to take a 3-2 lead in their ATP Head2Head series.

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The 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion stood out on return, earning 14 break points in the match and converting five of them. The fourth seed is into the last eight at the Lindner Family Tennis Center without losing a set.

Daniil Medvedev showed further signs of improvement at the Western & Southern Open Thursday, when he backed up his opening-round win over Botic van de Zandschulp with a victory against dynamic lefty Denis Shapovalov.

The 26-year-old overcame Canadian Shapovalov 7-5, 7-5 in one hour and 45 minutes to reach his second ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season. The top seed suffered a disappointing second-round loss against Nick Kyrgios in Montreal last week, but he is looking back to his best on the courts in Cincinnati.

Medvedev hit his flat backhand with consistency, while he stood deep behind the baseline on return to soak up Shapovalov’s lefty serve and penetrating forehand, improving to 3-2 in their ATP Head2Head series.

“The match was pretty tight. I felt that it was a great level. I felt that he was missing a bit more than me but making more points, but that is how Shapo plays,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview. “My goal was to stay there every point possible and try and put pressure on him when I had the chance. But there were many points where I was just running across the baseline, trying to get back his shots. Generally happy with the level.”

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Taylor Fritz reached his third ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season Thursday at the Western & Southern Open, where he clawed past Andrey Rublev 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-5 to set a potential clash with World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

The American, who dispatched Nick Kyrgios in his second-round match in Cincinnati, showcased his defensive and offensive skills throughout the two-hour, 32-minute clash against Rublev, soaking up the sixth seed’s aggressive ball striking to improve to 4-2 in their ATP Head2Head series.

Fritz now holds a 35-13 record on the year and is the first American since John Isner and Jack Sock in 2017 to reach the last eight at three Masters 1000 events in a single season.

“I felt at times my serve rhythm was going away, but I just didn’t want to go a break down in the second set. I tried to hit some good serves, take some more risks,” Fritz said in his on-court interview. “I thought at the end of the first I was too passive. So I told myself to take chances [in the second set].

“It was a big match. I wasn’t going to let anything really bother me or affect me to where it might affect me to lose the match. Every time something didn’t go my way, I tried to analyse it and think about what to do next time to try and win the point.”

The International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA) is delighted to announce Giri Nathan as the inaugural winner of the Tom Perrotta Prize for Tennis Journalism.

The annual prize, which is awarded to a writer under the age of 40 who shows excellence in tennis journalism and which includes a $2,000 cash award, will be presented during the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

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The five-strong judging panel loved Nathan’s “refreshing” writing style, particularly in two pieces for Racquet Magazine; “Big Nick Energy”, about Nick Kyrgios and “Emma, Inc”, which examined the impact of Emma Raducanu’s stunning US Open triumph in 2021.

The award is in memory of American writer Tom Perrotta, whose exemplary contributions to tennis were curtailed by his untimely death at the age of 44.

Playing at the Western & Southern Open for the first time in five years on Wednesday night, Rafael Nadal showed the Cincinnati fans why it was worth the wait to see their 2013 champion return. But after battling Borna Coric for an engrossing two hours, 51 minutes on centre court, the Spaniard bowed out of the ATP Masters 1000 event after his opening match.

Playing in his first match since withdrawing ahead of the Wimbledon semi-finals with an abdominal tear, Nadal dropped a 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-3 decision to the Croatian as he struggled to consistently play at the level which has propelled him to four tour-level titles this season.

"Obviously I didn't play my best match," Nadal said in his post-match presser, later revealing he was only able to play two practice sets in the buildup. "[It is] something that can happen. Historically this tournament has been difficult for me. So coming back from a tough period of time, [it is] something that's easy to accept and easy to say congrats to Borna, that he played better."

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Nadal missed out on two set points in a dramatic first-set tie-break but regrouped to force a decider. Down the stretch, Coric dictated the rallies as he claimed his lone break of the match midway through the final set to earn the statement victory.

As far back as his 2016 breakthrough at Flushing Meadows, when as a highly touted teen he claimed the US Open boys’ singles title, Felix Auger-Aliassime has had to tote some outsized outside expectations.

Here we could barely pronounce his name, yet we were sure this uncannily athletic Canadian was destined for a title-filled career. The thing is, we forgot that he was just 16; we expected it all to happen overnight.   

“You shouldn’t listen to what is said outside,” said Auger-Aliassime last week in his native Montreal, where he became the first Quebecois to reach the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers on home turf. “You always try to see the future. I do that, too. But what a player has to do is to keep a cool head because every point you play, you must win them by yourself. You have to win each match you play and start again every day. Nothing is easy.”

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The successes would indeed come. In 2019, the then-18-year-old became the youngest member of the Top 25 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 20 years, the youngest ATP 500 finalist (Rio de Janeiro) in a decade, and the youngest Miami Open semi-finalist in tournament history, which dates back to 1985. By 2021, he had cracked the Top 10, only the third Canadian to do so after Milos Raonic and Denis Shapovalov, while reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals and US Open semi-finals.

Grigor Dimitrov and Andrey Rublev cashed in on a ruthlessly efficient performance on return to advance to the second round of the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday. The singles stars edged Daniel Evans and John Peers 7-6(5), 7-5, converting on all three of their break chances and winning 86 per cent of their first-serve points. 

Despite failing to serve out the opening set, losing a deciding point at 5-4, the duo regrouped to win the tie-break by taking its final three points. They were again denied on a deciding point in their first attempt to serve out the match at 5-4 in the second set, but responded with an immediate break back before serving out the win to love.

The pair will next face second seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, who received a bye into the second round.

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Holger Rune and Stefanos Tsitsipas also advanced, taking a 6-2, 6-3 decision against David Vega Hernandez and Rafael Matos. Sixth seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus join them in the second round after a 6-2, 6-1 win against the Argentine pairing of Francisco Cerundolo and Diego Schwartzman.

Borna Coric picked up his fifth tour-level win since his March return from shoulder surgery on Wednesday at the Western & Southern Open. But with this one, the former World No. 12 announced that he is back at his best.

The Croatian edged Rafael Nadal 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the third round in Cincinnati, battling for two hours, 51 minutes to secure his biggest win of the season by both opponent and stage. After taking a dramatic first-set tie-break in which both players saved two set points, Coric scored his first break of the match midway through the decider as he dictated play in the final set.

"It has been very, very special," Coric said of his win on centre court. "I was out for the last two years and I didn't play on the big stage in front of the crowd and everybody. I was honestly just looking forward to playing this match as I haven't had that in the last two years. Now that I won, it's kind of crazy."

Nadal's defeat ends his bid for a return to the top spot in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings this week. The World No. 3 will have another chance to leapfrog Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev at the US Open.

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Dominic Thiem was awarded a main draw wild card into the US Open, the tournament announced on Wednesday.

The Austrian captured his first Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2020 and owns a 22-6 record at the season’s final major.

The former No. 3 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings is working his way back from a wrist injury, which prevented him from defending his title at Flushing Meadows last year.

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Also receiving wild cards into the main draw were Americans Sam Querrey, Emilio Nava, JJ Wolf, Ben Shelton and Learner Tien, as well as Frenchman Ugo Humbert and Australian Rinky Hijikata.

Stefanos Tsitsipas put an emphatic end to a two-match losing streak with a strong opening performance on Wednesday at the Western & Southern Open. The Cincinnati fourth seed rode a dominant serving performance and clean hitting to a 6-3, 6-3 win against Filip Krajinovic to earn his first victory in two events since Wimbledon.

The Greek was downed by Nick Kyrgios in a memorable third-round encounter on the London lawns and fell victim to an upset bid from #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper last week in Montreal. But after two tough holds to open his Cincinnati campaign, he found a groove on serve and off the ground to power past Krajinovic behind two mid-set breaks.

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Tsitsipas scored six love service holds, including each of his final four service games, and dropped just three points on first serve in the one-hour, nine minute match. He finished with a pristine 92 per cent (34/37) win rate on first serve while making 76 per cent of his first deliveries. In a clean match all around, the Greek hit 28 winners (including 14 aces) to just four unforced errors as he outclassed his opponent on Court 3.

The two-time Cincinnati semi-finalist also excelled in the INSIGHTS: Conversion metric, which shows that he won 81 per cent (17/21) of points in which he gained an attacking advantage against Krajinovic. Conversely, he also had a big edge in the Steal metric, winning 29 per cent of points from defence to his opponent's 19 per cent.

John Isner was one point from winning the first set of his second-round match at the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday against eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz when he heard murmurs in the crowd. Naturally, the American turned around.

At 6/3 in the tie-break, Isner did not expect to see a ball boy fainting on the other side of the court. Immediately, the 37-year-old ran to help as best he could. Hurkacz and a woman who identified herself as a doctor also pitched in.

“I don’t think I did anything special,” Isner told ATPTour.com. “I saw Hubi running to the side of the court and it’s a scary thing because he had this ‘he-saw-a-ghost look’ in his face and he collapsed, and luckily someone was there. But I think people need to realise how hard it is what these ball boys and ball girls do. It’s a tough job out there in the heat. We appreciate their effort so much out there.

“From what I hear, the kid is going to be okay and hopefully he’s getting some fluids and in the air conditioning right now resting up. Someone told me that he remembers watching me since he was four years old or something like that, so that’s very cool to hear. But it was definitely a very scary situation and [I am] just glad that he seems to be okay.”

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Taylor Fritz’s fast start to the Western & Southern Open continued Wednesday with a rapid 6-3, 6-2 second-round victory against the in-form Nick Kyrgios.

In a clash between two of the biggest servers on the ATP Tour, it was the 11th seed Fritz whose delivery proved impenetrable in his 51-minute win at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati. The American powered 16 aces and did not face a break point in his first tour-level meeting with Kyrgios, who received treatment on his knee from the physio during the match.

“It feels great to have [my] game come together today,” said Fritz, who improved his record at Masters 1000 tournaments to 15-3 with the win. “That’s the kind of match I really needed to give me a lot of confidence going into the next match, going to the US Open, a lot of things are clicking for sure."

Fritz defeated Sebastian Baez in just 54 minutes in his opening match in Cincinnati, where he is now into the third round for the first time in five appearances. His opponent there will be Andrey Rublev, after the sixth seed sealed a 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 6-2 win against Fabio Fognini.

More to follow…

Ben Shelton only just completed his sophomore year at the University of Florida, but the 19-year-old American appears ready to graduate onto the ATP Tour.

The Western & Southern Open wild card continued his dream ATP Masters 1000 debut on Wednesday with a dominant 6-3, 6-3 win against fifth seed Casper Ruud, one day after edging Lorenzo Sonego in three sets. Shelton needed just one hour, eight minutes to secure his first Top 10 win and advance to the third round, where he will face ninth seed and fellow lefty Cameron Norrie.

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After winning the final two games of his opening-round victory, Shelton won the first two games of both sets against Ruud. Those early breaks were more than enough as the American did not face a break point on serve.

Shelton dropped just eight points on serve, winning 85 per cent (22/26) of his first-serve points and 78 per cent (14/18) on his second delivery. He was also ruthlessly efficient on return, breaking in all three games in which he created a break point, including a three-deuce battle in his first return game.