The Cincinnati Open makes its singles draws Tuesday afternoon, and by the time the names come out of the bowl the most consequential decisions have already been made. The seedings were fixed on a ranking published before the Canadian Open finished, which means nothing produced in Montreal or Toronto this week can move a player’s position in Ohio.
That is a consequence of a calendar in which the two tournaments overlap. The Canadian Open crowns its champions Thursday, the same day Cincinnati’s main draw begins, and the ranking used to order the Cincinnati seeds was locked well before those finals are played. A player can spend this week winning a Masters 1000 title and arrive in Mason seeded exactly where he was a week ago.
The clearest illustration sits at the top of the men’s draw. Alexander Zverev is the No. 1 seed after Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal, and he holds that position despite losing his opening match in Montreal. Sinner is out with a right knee injury and Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, has not played since April because of a wrist problem. Between them they have taken the world’s top two players out of the last significant tune-up before the US Open.
Ben Shelton offers the mirror image. The defending Canadian Open champion is still alive in Montreal and could lift the trophy Thursday afternoon, then drive to Ohio and find his Cincinnati seeding unchanged by any of it. The same applies to Learner Tien, Jakub Mensik and everyone else still playing in Canada. Their week is worth ranking points and prize money, but not a better bracket.
On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka leads the field as world No. 1 and Iga Swiatek returns as defending champion, having reached the Toronto semifinals on Monday. Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva and Elina Svitolina are all entered. The women’s draw has lost six players to injury, among them Jasmine Paolini, last year’s finalist, and Karolina Muchova.
Both singles draws hold 96 players, an expanded format that gives the top 32 seeds a first-round bye. Seeded players cannot meet another seed before the third round, which is why the ordering matters: it determines who spends the opening days playing qualifiers and who runs into a top-20 opponent immediately.
Qualifying begins Tuesday morning and runs through Wednesday. Forty-eight men and 48 women play two rounds each, and 12 from each field advance into the main draw. Those qualifiers are placed after the main draw is made, which is why the bracket released Tuesday will still carry blank lines when it appears.
The draw ceremony also changes how a late withdrawal is filled. Until the draw is made, a vacancy goes to the next player on the alternate list in ranking order. Afterward, it goes to a lucky loser from qualifying instead. That is the difference between a predictable replacement and a lottery, and it is the reason the final hours before a draw ceremony are often the busiest for tournament staff.
The doubles draw follows Aug. 14, three days behind the singles, and includes the wild card given to Venus and Serena Williams, who will play together in Cincinnati for the first time. Venus also received a singles wild card, one of six the tournament awarded in the women’s field alongside Sloane Stephens, Darja Vidmanova, Elvina Kalieva, Caroline Dolehide and Lois Boisson.
What the draw actually decides, then, is the shape of the next 11 days rather than the hierarchy. Novak Djokovic plays his first tournament since Wimbledon and arrives as a three-time Cincinnati champion. Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul lead a substantial American contingent across both fields. Grigor Dimitrov, the 2017 champion, is in on a wild card, as are Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils, both in their final seasons.
Main-draw play begins Thursday and runs to the finals on Aug. 23, one week before the US Open starts in New York. For most of the field this is the last competitive hard-court tennis before Flushing Meadows, and the tournament format gives it more room than any event outside the majors. For the players still in Canada, it begins the same day their tournament ends — with a seeding that was settled while they were still winning matches.
