The brilliant Tumaini Carayol joins us to recap events in Toronto, Montreal and Cincinnati. We also get into the US Open draws
Our thoughts on the Alexander Zverev and the Olga Sharypova domestic abuse allegations. Zverev says he is taking legal action after the second part of Ben Rothenberg’s article was released earlier this week.
Since we’ve been off Gael Monfils has returned to form – beat John Millman and Frances Tiafoe en route to quarter-finals in Toronto before going out to John Isner. Played his best tennis in Cincinnati where he reached the third round – picked up wins against Dusan Lajovic and Alex de Minaur before going down in controversial match against eventual runner-up Andrey Rublev.
Tiafoe put his lucky loser entry to good use in Toronto – beat Yoshihito Nishioka and Denis Shapovalov en route to third round before going down to Monfils. He had some nice words for the Frenchman at the end of that match. Performed well in Cincinnati too. Picked up a nice straight-sets win against Ugo Humbert in round one before going down in three sets to Diego Schwartzman in round two.
Felix Auger-Aliassime bounced back from his disappointing early exit in Toronto (lost to Lajovic round two) with a run to the quarter-finals in Cincinnati. Beat Marton Fucsovics, Karen Khachanov and Matteo Berrettini en route. Lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in three.
Coco Gauff made it to the quarter-finals in Montreal – picked up her first win against Anastasjia Sevastova, led Anastasia Potopova 5-0 before the the Russian retired with injury, received a walkover against Jo Konta before losing to eventual champ Camila Giorgi.
Sloane Stephens picked up a good opening-round win against Dayana Yastremska and lost a close three-setter to Aryna Sabalenka in round two. Fell to Caroline Garcia in three in Cincy.
Naomi Osaka returned to action in Cincinnati. Beat Gauff in three sets in round two, before losing to eventual runner-up Jil Teichmann in a three-setter in round three.
Heather Watson came through qualifying and got a good win against Aliaksandra Sasnovich before falling to eventual champ Ash Barty in round two.
Hailey Baptiste (181 in the world), playing the WTA 125 event in Chicago, got a good straight-sets win over Danka Kovinic (64 in the world) before losing in three to eventual champ Clara Tauson in round two.
Last week Mikael Ymer broke new ground… the Swedish No 1 reached his first ATP-Tour level final in Winston-Salem picking up wins against Stefano Travaglia, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Max Purcell and Tiafoe. Beat Carlos Alcaraz in the semis and lost to Ilya Ivashka in the final.
Francoise Abanda, playing the WTA 250 event in Chicago, beat Kovinic. That was her first WTA main draw win since 2018.
Venus Williams also played that event but lost to Hsieh Su-Wei.
US Open preview No Serena (hamstring)! No Venus (leg)! No Rafa (foot)! No Roger (knee)!
Women
Hailey Baptiste vs. Shuai Zhang
Madison Keys vs. Sloane Stephens (Repeat of the 2017 final… Stephens leads the head-to-head 4-2)
(21) Coco Gauff vs. Magda Linette
Alycia Parks vs. (Q) Olga Danilovic*
(3) Naomi Osaka vs. Marie Bouzkova
Jasmine Paolini vs. Yaroslava Shvedova
Heather Watson vs. Kaja Juvan
Men
Mikael Ymer vs. Jenson Brooksby
(17) Gael Monfils vs. Federico Coria
Frances Tiafoe vs. (Q) Christopher Eubanks*
(12) Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. (Q) Evgeny Donskoy*
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. (8) Casper Ruud
*Qualifiers were not placed at the time of recording
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