Coric begins Western & Southern Open title defense; Jabeur digs deep, Alcaraz survives
MASON − Last year, Borna Coric was a distant longshot after entering the Western & Southern Open ranked No. 152. He ended the week ranked No. 29 after beating five players inside the ATP top 20 and became the lowest-ranked player to ever win an ATP Masters 1000 title.
Playing on the same court from last year’s championship on Monday night, Coric, ranked No. 15, looked the part of one of the ATP’s top players in taking care of American Sebastian Korda in a two-day affair, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
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After winning a back-and-forth first set Monday night, Coric led 4-3 in the second set when a heavy downpour in Mason eventually pushed the rest of the match to Tuesday afternoon. Coric seized momentum on three double faults from Korda to eventually take the match.
"I felt the key was in my serve; I started to serve much better. Once I broke him in the first set to come back I felt like I got the momentum," Coric said following Tuesday's win.
Coric has been ranked in the top 30 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings since winning last year in Cincinnati. He's been top 20 since February and comes into this week at No. 16 after a semifinal run in the Los Cabos Open and a first-round exit in the Canadian Open.
This time around, he's not sneaking up on anyone.
"It's a much, much different feeling. Last year, I had absolutely no expectations at all. I was just happy to be here," Coric said. "This year I have the pressure that I need to defend the title. I try to just focus on the next match and I try not to think about it. It feels great; it's awesome to be back here."
Coric will face either Hubert Hurkacz of Poland or Australian qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis in the second round.
Ons Jabeur digs deep in return
Ons Jabeur flashed a smile and gave an emphatic fist bump after her lunging backhand slipped just inside the sideline to take a 30-15 lead in her second-round matchup against Anhelina Kalinina in the second round of the Western & Southern Open Tuesday. With powerful forehands and precisely placed backhands, Jabeur, known as "The Minister of Happiness," kept Kalinina sprinting the baseline and rarely provided any comfort.
Of course, there was rust for Jabeur, ranked No. 5, in her first match since suffering the "most painful" loss of her career in the Wimbledon final last month. In the second set, she gently tossed her racquet after a few shots slammed into the net. After winning the first set 6-3, she lost the second set and was in severe danger of an early exit, trailing 5-1 in the third.
But Jabeur, looking for a fresh restart after Wimbledon, got just that, rallying to force a third-set tiebreak and winning it, 7-2, to advance to the Round of 32 in Cincinnati.
"A lot of frustration. I thought about a lot of things. First, the crowd really helped me get into not giving up. I heard some people telling me not to give up," said Jabeur, who has reached the Round of 16 in Cincinnati the last two seasons. "I saw Venus (Williams) did it yesterday, coming back from 5-1. She's an inspiration for me and many players. I gotta thank her for the comeback today, too."
Battle of former champs
Alexander Zverev, the No. 16 seed, defeated Grigor Dimitrov in the first round of the ATP singles draw on Tuesday afternoon. It was a battle of former Western & Southern Open champions with Zverev winning it all in his last Cincinnati appearance in 2021 and Dimitrov hoisting the Rookwood Cup in 2017.
Zverev cruised with his serve, totaling eight aces (Dimitrov had none). The German also had just one double fault to Dimitrov's eight and won 73% of points on his second serve.
Zverev, who is coming off a historic 2023 Hamburg European Open in his home country last month without losing a set, will face Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka in the second round.
Novak Djokovic falls in 1st American match since 2021
Making his return to the United States for his first event in two years, Novak Djokovic and doubles partner Nikola Cacic fell to the tandem of Jamie Murray/Michael Venus in the first round of the doubles draw in front a big crowd on Tuesday afternoon.
Djokovic, who is ranked No. 2, is contending for the No. 1 singles ATP ranking and will face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain in the second round later this week.
Sloane Stephens gets revenge on familiar foe to oust defending champion
American Sloane Stephens is a popular player in Cincinnati, making her 12th appearance at the tournament since 2004, tying her with Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova for the most in that span.
In her first-round match, Stephens saw a familiar face across the court in Caroline Garcia of France, who was the defending women's singles champion of the Western & Southern Open. Garcia beat Stephens in the first round in Cincinnati in both 2020 and 2021 and was the sixth seed here this week.
Stephens avenged those losses with a three-set win Tuesday night on Center Court rallying from behind to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Stephens had the serving advantage, getting 71 percent of her first serves in and winning 64 percent of her points on second serve. She won five break points to four for Garcia in the evenly-played match.
She will play the winner of Wednesday's early match between No. 10 seed Marketa Vondrousova and Anasatasia Potapova.
Top seed, Wimbledon champ Carlos Alcaraz survives three-set thriller
Top seed in the men’s singles draw Carlos Alcaraz of Spain survived a three-set thriller against Australian Jordan Thompson, who advanced from the weekend’s qualifying rounds before knocking off John Isner in the first round.
Alcaraz, the No. 1-ranked player in the world and the reigning Wimbledon champion, outlasted Thompson 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in a match that took over three hours.
Leading 5-3 in the third set, and with Thompson serving, Alcaraz returned unhittable winners on two consecutive points, a volley with a lot of spin then a strong forehand winner, to set up match point. Alcaraz then hit a shot that Thompson had to reach to return and hit it into the net to end the match.
Thompson, ranked 55th in the world, had recently reached the quarterfinals of two lower-level ATP events after playing three competitive sets in a loss to Novak Djokovic in the second round at Wimbledon.
Alcaraz was coming off a quarterfinal loss in Toronto last week and needs to reach the finals this week to keep his No. 1 ranking.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Western & Southern Open: Borna Coric begins title defense
