Tsitsipas overcomes initial challenge in Cincinnati and prepares for duel against Aliassime
Stefanos Tsitsipas faced a challenging start to his participation in the Cincinnati Masters 1000, an important preparatory tournament before the US Open. The Greek tennis player beat Frenchman Valentin Royer in two sets, with partials of 7/6 (7-4) and 7/5, after a battle lasting one hour and 58 minutes on August 14, 2026.
The athlete, who recently celebrated his 28th birthday, maintains a positive streak in Cincinnati. This was his seventh consecutive victory in the opening round of the tournament, where he has not been eliminated early since 2019, when he lost to German Jan-Lennard Struff.
For the second phase of the competition, the Greek tennis player will have a difficult clash against Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime, second seed, who is already advancing to this stage. The clash will mark the 11th meeting between the two, with Tsitsipas having an advantage of seven wins against three defeats on record.
In another relevant match in the first round, Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz also secured his place. He eliminated Japanese lucky-loser Sho Shimabukuro, who had replaced Frenchman Corentin Moutet in the main draw, with scores of 6/2 and 6/4 in straight sets.
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Hurkacz will face the American Tommy Paul, 18th seeded, in the next round. Although the Pole has been defeated in three of their previous five duels, he triumphed in their most recent meeting, which took place in the third round of Wimbledon last year.
In the same section of the bracket, Paraguayan Daniel Vallejo overcame Frenchman Kyrian Jacquet, coming from qualifying, with the same splits of 6/2 and 6/4. Vallejo will now face 15th seed Valentin Vacherot as his opponent in the second round, and the winner of that game will face Paul or Hurkacz.
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Main names in the dispute, De Minaur and Musetti already know who they will face in Cincinnati
Alex de Minaur, from Australia, and Lorenzo Musetti, from Italy, who are among the main candidates for the title in Cincinnati as fifth and tenth favorites, respectively, already know who their first opponents will be in the tournament.
Australian De Minaur will start his journey against Frenchman Quentin Halys, who advanced from qualifying after beating Czech Vit Kopriva 7/6 (7-5) and 6/4 in the previous round. Halys has defeated the Australian tennis player on each of the two previous occasions they have faced each other.
In turn, Italian Musetti will face German Daniel Altmaier as his opponent in his debut. Altmaier secured his place by beating Coleman Wong, from Hong Kong, with odds of 3/6, 6/3 and 6/4. This will be the first meeting between them in an ATP main draw, although Musetti has won two of their previous three meetings.
