Singles draw for the Western & Southern Open, the seventh ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the season, was made on Friday. The tournament begins on Sunday, August 11.
Nole is no.1 seed and has a first round BYE. This will be his ninth appearance in Cincinnati.
The Serbian world no.1 will face Argentina’s Juan Monaco (32) in the second round.
Nole’s potential rivals in the later stages of the tournament are:
3rd round: Gilles Simon (FRA, 15), Vasek Pospisil (CAN, SE)
Quarter-finals: Richard Gasquet (FRA, 8), Milos Raonic (CAN, 12), John Isner (USA)
Semi-finals: David Ferrer (ESP, 3), Juan Martin del Potro (ARG, 7)
Andy Murray (GBR, 2), Rafael Nadal (ESP, 4), Roger Federer (SUI, 5), Tomas Berdych (CZE, 6)… are in the other half of the draw.
Novak has a shot at tennis history next week, when he attempts to complete a sweep of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments.
Should he win the Western & Southern Open for the first time, he would become the first singles player to win all of the ATP World Tour’s nine premier events.
The 26-year-old Belgrade native has finished runner-up at Cincinnati on four occasions, in 2008 (l. to Murray), 2009 (l. to Federer), 2011 (l. to Murray) and 2012 (l. to Federer).
Photo: Reuters
