Carlos Alcaraz will not be in the men’s draw at the 2026 Cincinnati Open, but the event still carries major weight with Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev among the leading names.

The tournament will stage its 125th men’s edition in Mason, Ohio, from 13 to 23 August at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Sitting as the second hard-court ATP Masters 1000 event of the North American summer swing, Cincinnati also stands as the final major stop before the US Open.

Alcaraz arrives as the reigning champion after winning his first Cincinnati Open title in 2025, yet he will not defend that crown because of a right wrist injury. His absence reshapes the top of the field, even as the draw remains deep and competitive.

The men’s singles main draw includes 96 players, with 32 seeded entrants. There are 12 qualifiers and five wildcards, giving the event its familiar blend of established contenders and players coming through different routes into the main field.

Prize money for the 2026 tournament totals $9,415,725, underlining the scale of the event on the ATP calendar. Ranking points are also significant, with 1,000 awarded to the champion, 650 to the runner-up, 400 to the semi-finalists, 200 to the quarter-finalists and 100 to the round of 16.

The projected seeds are headed by Sinner at No. 1, followed by Zverev, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Djokovic. Daniil Medvedev, Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz and Flavio Cobolli fill out the top eight, while Ben Shelton, Jiri Lehecka, Lorenzo Musetti and Casper Ruud are also placed among the seeds.

Beyond the seeded list, the draw features a wide range of other entries, plus wildcards Grigor Dimitrov, Jack Draper, Gael Monfils, Stan Wawrinka and Jenson Brooksby.

Alex Eala’s surge to the Washington Open crown has made her one of the more intriguing names to watch before the US Open.

The Filipina captured the title by defeating Jessica Pegula in three sets. Along the way, she also beat Elina Svitolina and Naomi Osaka, adding more weight to a breakout run that has sharpened attention on what might come next.

Eala is set to continue her buildup through the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open before arriving in New York. That sequence has already prompted plenty of interest from her supporters, who are eager to see whether she can produce another strong showing at Flushing Meadows this year.

Her 2025 US Open already offered a breakthrough moment. There, she recorded the first Grand Slam main draw victory of her career by overcoming Clara Tauson before falling to Cristina Bucsa in the second round.

Recent history suggests the Washington title can be a useful marker for the next major. The last five Washington Open winners before Eala were Leylah Fernandez, Paula Badosa, Coco Gauff, Liudmila Samsonova and Jessica Pegula.

The record has been varied, but none of those champions exited in the first two rounds of the US Open. Fernandez reached the third round last year, Badosa went on to make the quarter-finals in 2023, and Samsonova reached the fourth round in 2022. Pegula advanced to the third round in 2021.

The standout case remains Gauff, who won in Washington and then captured the US Open in the same season, beating Maria Sakkari in the final. If Eala can follow a similar path, she would register the best US Open result of her career.

Carlos Alcaraz could be on track to return during the American hard-court swing, yet the bigger issue may be whether he can immediately look like himself again after such a long break.

The Spaniard has been absent for five months since suffering an injury at the Barcelona Open in April. Even so, his name has appeared on the entry lists for both the Cincinnati Open and the US Open.

There are still signs that his preparation is not fully advanced. Reports indicate that Alcaraz is only doing light training on court, and he was also seen at the World Cup Final wearing a brace on his wrist.

If he does make it back in time for the final Grand Slam of the year in New York, Christina McHale believes the main uncertainty is not talent, but match readiness. Speaking on The Inside-In Tennis Podcast, the former World No 24 said: “Where’s his fitness level at too? Playing best-of-five in New York, where it’s really hot, having not played for so many months, not competed.

“Will we be surprised if all of a sudden he comes out playing great? No, because that’s what he’s capable of. But I think most likely he’ll have to work himself into the tournament.”

McHale knows the challenges of a similar issue first-hand after dealing with the same type of injury during the 2025 season. “Well, I actually had that TFCC (Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex) injury last year. Thankfully I did not need surgery but I had sprained it and it required so much more PT than I ever imagined,” she said.

“I’d never had many injuries before. So, I can imagine he had a surgery and like and it’s tough because it’s you, you know, you start to come back and then you might start compensating and then all of a sudden you start feeling a little bit something elsewhere or you’re so eager to get back on court that you maybe do too much. So, it’s such a fine line and a balance.”

For now, the Cincinnati Open appears to be the target return point, and any withdrawal from that event would be the clearest cause for concern.

The stakes are significant. Alcaraz is the defending champion there and is protecting 1000 ranking points, a haul that could matter in his bid to climb back toward the top two. He dropped to World No 3 after Alexander Zverev reached the Wimbledon final for the first time in his career.