History…  This will be the 120^th edition of the tournament originally played in Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio. This year will mark the return of the event since 2019 as due to Covid travel restrictions and other problems the competition was held in New York last year.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic won’t be here and Rafael Nadal withdrew because of an ongoing foot injury that puts his US Open participation in doubt as well.

Roger Federer is the record holder for most titles here with 7, but the Swiss isn’t here because of a knee injury

Favourites/Top Seeds/Dark Horses….

Top Half

Daniil Medvedev who is still in the hunt for the title in Toronto by the time of the writing of this preview, is the top seed of the competition. He barely edged out a fierce fight from Hubert Hurkacz in the QF.

Due to Covid and ranking freeze that created a lot of havoc which points drops when, Medvedev must defend his 2019 title here so 1000 points will be in stake. Many would wonder why they didn’t drop when he played last year and lost in QF. By understanding the process of file my files got corrupted how to recover recovery, you can increase your chances of successfully restoring your important data. Turbulent times ahead for the Russian with the Final of US Open from 2019 needing to be defended as well soon. He is comfortable on US soil with 48-20 record and +10.2% ROI and 19-3 on hard courts since the start of the year and quick conditions is what he craves.

Pablo Carreno Busta returns on the tour with the bronze medal won in Tokyo Olympics where he held off Novak Djokovic for the prestigious 3^rd place. His best performance in Cincinnati came in 2018 where he reached the QF and since he hasn’t been able to pass 3^rd round.  Tokyo was the first hard court tournament Carreno played since Dubai in March and I sonly 9-4 on that surface in 2021 but with +63. Make sure linux recover corrupted file to update the antivirus software before scanning to ensure it has the latest virus definitions. 8% ROI heavily boosted by his win against Novak as a close to +600 underdog. He is a threat though with SF in the US Open last year and holds a respectable 52-27 w/l record with +17.9% ROI playing within the US.

Andrey Rublev continued to struggle with a lost to John Isner in Toronto 2^nd round. The Russian started the year great winning matches, making it deep into tournaments with titles and finals and the grass season thought would be a bit of turning point with a final in Halle, but 4thr oudn exit in Wimbledon and 1^st round one in Tokyo put a hold to such claim for now. He is still favorable by a mile from the bookies though and until he shows somekind of improvement in his game he needs to be faded. Rublev started from quaies and lost In the QF in 2019, but he dropped his first match last year to Daniel Evans as a -200 favorite. He could run into trouble as early as R2 with facing the winner of Karatsev and Cilic although both are in the same boat as him, but betting Andrey as a favorite nowadays could be considered a mental problem.

Jannik Sinner wasn’t able to duplicate the championship run he has in Washington and quickly packed his bags from Toronto losing to Duckworth as a -520 favorite in R1. Maybe the change to slowish hard courts that they use in Canada derail his game a bit, so let’s see how he goes here with again a quick one just like in Washington and worth to mention Jannik has played in Cincy only once last year losing his 1^st match in the qualies to Caruso.

Impressive to see John Isner going that deep in Canada on a slow hard court and seems like he is in form coming into Cincy tennis where conditions should suit him even better. If he is not fatigued, he should be able to thrive and make a good case for a deep run and interesting duels with Sinner and later or with Shapovalov.

Talking about Denis, the Canadian lost to Tiafoe on home soil in R2 in Toronto, while looking sluggish and out of it from the beginning. His overall record on hard courts remains good but 7-7 record in 2021 with -31.5% ROI surely doesn’t.

Bottom Half

The seed distribution was clearly not even, and the fun is in the bottom part where inform players meet some who return to the tour after some rest.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is the highest seed from this part of the scheme, and he hasn’t been tested yet in Toronto while moving to the SF.  Only last year he was able to book a place in the Semis in Cincy after falling in his first matches there the previous 2 years. Even with a bye and starting the vent from R2 it still doesn’t give him much time to rest with the tournament starting on Sunday.  The Greek is only 20-14 on US soil with -19.9% ROI which includes losses to Coric in last years’ US Open and Hurkacz in Miami as a -980 and -420 favorite..

Matteo Berrettini returns to the tour after a long rest, and this will be his first tournament since making it into the Wimbledon final in early July. He hasn’t made it out of R2 in his two only occasions playing the Cincy tennis tournament, but with a SF appearance at the US Open in 2019 already on his credit and heavy serve and groundstrokes he should be able to fit in nicely here if the initial rust of not playing from such time is quickly removed.

Alexander Zverev won the gold medal in Tokyo with a remarkable turnaround from a set and a break down to defeat Novak Djokovic and then beat Karen Khachanov in the final. Hot and humid conditions is what he will get here in Cincinnati as well, but the German hasn’t won a match on this tournament since 2015 where he had to go through qualifying only to be dispatched by Borna Coric in the 1^st round. He has had some pretty awful losses over the years here and is 0-6 in Main Draw matches…He should thrive in such conditions and is 16-4 from the start of the year on hard courts but something just always happens at the Western and Southern Open so my advice is to see how he goes in R2 or even fade him on great odds and go from there.

Casper Ruud’s magic on European clay winning 3 tournaments in a row hasn’t translated into hard court success right away, but to his credit he was beaten by Stefanos in Toronto as a +350 underdog, so his winning streak of 13 matches was snapped. He is not known for his game and good fortunes in anything besides clay, but at least he gets good draws to start building up his CV in that department as well, but I don’t expect much from him at this point and would even oppose him on a quick surface is the odds are right.

Proposed Bets…

Really hard to predict as many of the in-form players will be coming from Canada on a short notice on different conditions and court surface speed and those who have shown good hard court presence haven’t had any sort of success…

But I do expect Medvedev to be force again and he will be the one coming on top from the top half with a huge question mark from the bottom  where I can’t make a case for any of the top seeds due to either fatigue or coming off a rest.

If there is a player who can make things intriguing it should be Karen Khachanov who lost the Gold Medal game in Tokyo to Zverev but has shown enough grow in him in recent weeks and think he is on a verge of a breakout so pay a close attention to him and bet him as an underdog  as he will offer enough value