Updated Aug. 8, 2026: Jasmine Paolini has withdrawn from the Cincinnati Open, where she was runner-up last year. She announced it herself on Instagram on Friday. Her replacement has not been named.
Updated Aug. 7, 2026: Holger Rune has withdrawn from the Cincinnati Open, and Daniel Mérida moves out of qualifying into the main draw in his place. Lorenzo Sonego is next in line if another man comes out.
The last significant tune-up before the US Open is going ahead without a growing share of the players it was built around. At least 10 men and women have come out of the Cincinnati Open singles fields since the entry lists were published, and the losses have landed almost entirely at the top of the men’s draw.
Rune is the most recent. The Dane has not played a competitive match since rupturing his left Achilles tendon at the Stockholm Open in October 2025, and Cincinnati had been the last realistic staging post for a comeback before New York. He had already come out of Hamburg, Roland Garros, Queen’s, Wimbledon and Montreal while working back from surgery, each time stopping short of a firm return date. He has not set one now either. Mérida, who had been expected to play qualifying, takes the vacated place.
The largest absence remains the defending champion. Carlos Alcaraz withdrew on Aug. 4 with the right wrist injury that has kept him off the tour since the Barcelona Open in April. He won the title here last year when Jannik Sinner retired in the first set of the final, and he was due to defend 1,000 ranking points. Mattia Bellucci replaced him in the field. With Cincinnati gone, the ATP 250 in Winston-Salem is the only tune-up left on his calendar before New York.
Three men had already gone before Alcaraz. Alexander Bublik, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Sebastian Korda all came out of the men’s field, with Marton Fucsovics, Adam Walton and Valentin Royer taking their places. Korda has since had surgery. Gabriel Diallo is also expected to miss the tournament after retiring from his second-round match in Montreal with a leg injury, though Tennis Canada has not given a timeline for his return.
The women’s field has lost five. Victoria Mboko and Hailey Baptiste are both out for the entire North American hard-court swing with knee injuries, Mboko with medial collateral ligament damage sustained in a fall at Queen’s Club in June and Baptiste with an anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus injury from the second round of the French Open. Tamara Korpatsch and Tatjana Maria replaced them. Jacqueline Cristian also came out, replaced by Maria Timofeeva.
The fourth is Emma Raducanu, who is recovering from a stress fracture and has also been left off the US Open entry list. Maya Joint took her place in Cincinnati.
Jasmine Paolini is the fifth and the most recent. The Italian reached the final here last year and was defending 650 points. She has not played since the Wimbledon quarter-finals and had already skipped Washington and Toronto with a left foot injury. She confirmed the Cincinnati withdrawal herself on Instagram on Friday, saying the focus is on being ready for the US Open. It is mathematically possible she leaves the top 20 before New York, though that turns on results below her rather than on the withdrawal alone.
What remains is still a deep field, and the top of the women’s draw is essentially untouched. Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Mirra Andreeva and Iga Swiatek are all entered, with Swiatek defending the title. On the men’s side Sinner leads the field, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton are all in, and Novak Djokovic returns for the first time since winning the title in 2023.
Jack Draper is a separate case. He remains on the entry list and has not withdrawn, but his participation is in doubt after he lost his opening match in Montreal while hampered by an elbow problem. Until a withdrawal is filed he counts as entered, not absent.
Replacements are drawn from the alternate list in ranking order until the draw is made. Once the draw is out, a late withdrawal is filled by a lucky loser from qualifying rather than by the next alternate, which is why the identity of a replacement can change depending on how close to the draw ceremony a player pulls out. Qualifying runs Aug. 11-12 with 48 men and 48 women competing for 12 main-draw places each.
The tournament opens with Community Weekend on Aug. 8-9 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio. The main draw begins Aug. 13 and runs through Aug. 23. The US Open main draw starts Aug. 30.
Every withdrawal at this stage carries a second consequence. Points not defended in Cincinnati come off a player’s ranking on the Monday after the tournament, and US Open seeding is set from the rankings of Aug. 24. Alcaraz and Swiatek are the two defending champions here, and only one of them is playing. This page will be updated as further withdrawals are confirmed.
