Alexander Zverev has strengthened the case for being the clear No 2 in men’s tennis during Carlos Alcaraz’s five-month break from the sport. In that span, he has lifted his first Grand Slam trophy at Roland Garros and made his first career run to the Wimbledon final.

Still, one familiar issue has remained in place. Jannik Sinner continues to be the player Zverev cannot solve.

Zverev’s Wimbledon final defeat to Sinner marked his 10th consecutive loss to the Italian, a streak that began at the Cincinnati Open in 2024. Even so, Zverev has managed to move ahead of Sinner in one important 2026 ATP Tour measure, thanks to his results in Cincinnati.

After beating Cameron Norrie and Terence Atmane at the Masters event, Zverev became the player with the most match wins on the ATP Tour this season.

ATP Tour match victories in 2026

Alexander Zverev – 46
Jannik Sinner – 44
Rafael Jodar – 36
Tommy Paul – 34
Ben Shelton -33

That places Zverev ahead of Sinner, who has produced 44 wins in nine tournaments this year, along with Rafael Jodar, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton. It is also important to note that Zverev has played far more matches than Sinner in 2026. Zverev has contested 58 ATP Tour matches, while Sinner has played 47, giving the German more opportunities to collect victories.

Even with that difference, Zverev’s 75% winning rate this season supports his world No 2 ranking. With 17 seeded players already out of the Cincinnati Open, he enters the event as the leading contender for his first Masters title of the season.

His record against Sinner at Masters level this year remains a concern, however, with losses coming at Indian Wells, the Miami Open, the Madrid Open and the Monte Carlo Masters. The absence of the world No 1 in Cincinnati gives him a different outlook, but a tough next assignment still awaits.

Zverev will face Tommy Paul for a place in the quarter finals. He has lost two of their three meetings, at the Mexican Open in 2020 and Indian Wells in 2022, while his only win over the American came at the Australian Open in 2025, when he prevailed in four sets on the way to the final. The pair are scheduled to meet in the fourth round on Wednesday, 19th August, with the order of play still to be confirmed by the Cincinnati Open.

As the ATP and WTA Tours continue their North American hardcourt buildup, attention is shifting toward the season’s final Grand Slam at the US Open. The Cincinnati Open is in progress, and many of the leading names in both draws are trying to find the right level before Flushing Meadows.

Even so, the entry lists are already taking shape without several notable players. Nine players have withdrawn from the tournament so far, with eight of those absences coming from the WTA Tour.

Emma Raducanu, Hailey Baptiste and Victoria Mboko are among the most prominent players not set to appear in New York. Mboko and Baptiste both dealt with serious knee injuries earlier in the year, so their absence was expected. Raducanu, however, has also been ruled out through injury. Her stress fracture, which sidelined her at Wimbledon, is serious enough to keep her out of the entire North American hardcourt swing.

She is joined on the list by Ajla Tomljanovic, Varvara Gracheva, Irina-Camelia Begu, Jacqueline Cristian and Laura Siegemund.

WTA Tour star’s who have withdrawn from the US Open

Victoria Mboko (world No 12) > replaced by Mananchaya Sawangkaew

Hailey Baptiste (world No 32) > replaced by Kaitlin Quevedo

Emma Raducanu (world No 49) > replaced by Anna Blinkova

Ajla Tomljanovic (world No 95) > replaced by Ella Seidel

Varvara Gracheva (world No 102) > replaced by Anastasia Zakharova

Irina-Camelia Begu (world No 472) > replaced by Elsa Jacquemot

Jaqueline Cristian (world No 41) > replaced by Darja Vidmanova

Laura Siegemund (world No 89) > replaced by Nadia Podoroska

On the ATP side, only Sebastian Korda has officially withdrawn. The American has not played since the Miami Open and confirmed at the start of August that he had undergone back surgery.

“It’s been 4 months off-court managing pain in my back with a lot of pressure on my sciatica. After different treatments we decided to have a swift surgery that has finally relieved the pain. What a relief,” said Korda in a social media post.

“Massive thank you to Dr. Qureshi and his team. Now it is time to recover, heal and get back to work. Thanks everyone for the support. See ya’ll soon!”

ATP Tour star’s who have withdrawn from the US Open

Sebastian Korda (world No 50) > replaced by Aleksandar Vukic

Korda is the only confirmed men’s withdrawal for now, but uncertainty remains around several others. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are still considered doubts, with Alcaraz racing to recover from a wrist injury that has kept him out for five months. Sinner is managing a knee injury and has not played any North American events leading into the Slam.

Holger Rune could also miss the event as he works his way back from an ACL injury suffered at the Stockholm Open in October last year. He has not withdrawn, though. “I see conclusions on me withdrawing from US Open,” he wrote recently on social media. “I did not withdraw. I am working super hard everyday and as soon as I am ready, I am ready. I hope it will be US Open.”

Rune and Alcaraz have been training together in Murcia ahead of the tournament, leaving open the possibility that both could still compete.

Ben Shelton’s run in Cincinnati ended before it ever found momentum, as the American fell in straight sets to Jaime Faria in the second round. The defeat came only days after Shelton had wrapped up the Canadian Open title in Montreal for the second year in a row, a result that had underlined just how sharp his form had been entering the North American hardcourt swing.

That Montreal victory was built on a clean, dominant week. Shelton beat Brandon Nakashima, Learner Tien, Jakub Mensik, and Joao Fonseca on his way to the Masters crown, and he did so without dropping a set. Against that backdrop, his quick exit in Cincinnati stood out as one of the more unexpected results of the week.

It also renewed attention on a long-running issue around ATP Tour scheduling. The back-to-back placement of the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open continues to place players in an awkward position, particularly after deep runs the previous week. Shelton’s loss marked the fourth time in five years that the reigning Canadian Open champion has gone out in the opening match at Cincinnati.

The pattern has been clear across recent seasons: Pablo Carreno Busta exited in the opening round in 2022, Jannik Sinner did the same in 2023, Alexei Popyrin followed in 2024, and Shelton reached the quarter-finals in 2025 before his 2026 first-round disappointment. The sequence has only strengthened the argument that the schedule leaves little room for recovery between two demanding Masters events.

With the calendar becoming increasingly crowded, and with two-week Masters formats adding to the strain, strong performances in both tournaments have become even harder to sustain. Rafael Nadal remains the last player to win both events, doing so in 2013. Before that, only Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, Pat Rafter, Eddie Dibbs, and Cliff Richey achieved the same feat.

For that reason, the call is simple: if the ATP Tour wants to give top players a fair chance to compete in both tournaments, it needs to place a week between them. Without that break, the North American hardcourt swing risks producing more withdrawals, more frustration, and more results like Shelton’s in Cincinnati.