World No. 1 Medvedev takes on home team Fritz in Cincinnati quarterfinals, Alcaraz attacks second place in ATP rankings

In addition to the women’s tournament, the men’s tournament at the prestigious tennis event in Cincinnati, USA, has also advanced to the quarter-final stage. In Friday’s singles battles of the top eight, there is no shortage of world ranking leaders, home representatives and a young Spanish star.

Thursday on the courts in the city located in southwest Ohio belonged to the eight-final clashes. Among the women, the favourites Świąteková or Kontaveitová did not fare well, while the highest seeded men, who managed to advance to the last 16, continue to advance.

The leader of the singles ranking Daniil Medvedev, who is preparing to defend his triumph from last year’s US Open, defeated Denis Shapovalov twice 7::5. The Russian will face Taylor Fritz from the USA from 7 p.m., who after a three-set drama got past his compatriot world number one Rublyov.

Home tennis will also have a representative in the next match. John Isner also defeated Sebastian Korda in the American derby in a three-set match and now faces the number four seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek defeated the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman twice 6:3 in the eighth round.

The ninth player in the world, Félix Auger-Aliassime, who managed to turn around his match with Jannik Sinner, will play Borno Ćorić for a semi-final place. The Croatian, who is ranked 152nd, has had a tough tournament. Apart from qualifier Musetti, he had to deal with Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Roberto Bautista.

However, Spain has one more iron in the fire at the ATP 1000 event in Cincinnati, Carlos Alcaraz. After a two-set win over Marin Cilic, he will challenge world No. 11 Cameron Norrie in the quarterfinals.

Thanks to final set scores of 6::0 and 6::2, the Brit easily handled Ben Shelton, a player from the third 100 singles rankings who started the tournament as a wild card at the age of 19.

Alcaraz is just as young and will definitely have motivation in his clash with Norrie. He is already the youngest quarter-finalist in this prestigious tournament since Andy Murray sixteen years ago.

And if he were to win the title at the Western & Southern Open, he would move up from fourth to world number two. He’s currently less than 600 points shy of that position.

Source: Western & Southern Open, ATP