With Roger Federer’s loss yesterday, Novak Djokovic is now the heavy favorite to win this title. He’s the only man remaining to have claimed a Masters 1,000 title, and he has 33 of them. But the other seven remaining men can find hope in this: there have been five first-time Masters 1,000 champions since the start of 2018.
On the women’s side, the top three players in the world have all reached the quarterfinals. And all three still have a chance to leave Cincinnati as the world No.1. They’re joined by some new blood looking to fully establish themsevles, and a few former Major champions enjoying a great run in the twilight of their careers.
With the women’s draw being the more compelling, here’s a closer look at two of today’s WTA quarterfinals.
Naomi Osaka (2) vs. Sofia Kenin
Osaka overcame both a tough opponent and a tough court assignment yesterday, defeating the always-tricky Su-Wei Hsieh on the hawkeye-less Court 10. How the women’s world No.1 received such a degrading court assignment is a subject worth further exploration at another time. These two met at last year’s French Open, with Osaka prevailing in straight sets, though both are now much different players over a year later. Kenin is vying for her second semifinal in as many weeks, as eventual champion Bianca Andreescu was the only one to upend the 20-year-old American last week in Toronto. And Kenin has no issues with taking out top players: she now has four top 10 wins in the past three months. She’s been the better of these two players of late. With her penetrating groundstrokes and all-court guile, I suspect Sofia will be the victor today.
Madison Keys (16) vs. Venus Williams
Both women are coming off impressive three-set wins yesterday. Venus came back from a set down during the hottest part of the day to take out Donna Vekic. And Keys outlasted Wimbledon champion Simona Halep in a thrilling third set last night, Madison’s best win this season. Normally Keys would be the fresher player today since she’s 14 years Venus’ junior, but Madison’ win looked to be more physically and emotionally draining. And she’ll have less time to recover than Venus. Williams and Keys have split their four previous meetings, with three of them going the distance. Madison can definitely be the more up-and-down player of the two, but also possesses bigger highs than Venus at this point of her career. Keys is the better mover, and has more fire power. The thing that impressed me most yesterday about Madison was her fight. Too many times we’ve seen her become error-prone in a tight situation. On these fast hard courts in Cincinnati, I think Keys will fight her way to victory.
Other notable matches on Friday:
Ash Barty (1) vs. Maria Sakkari. Barty owns a 2-1 record against the 24-year-old from Greece, who has victories this week over two top 10 players: Petra Kvitova and Aryna Sabalenka.
Karolina Pliskova (3) vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova (WC). Kuznetsova cruised against Sloane Stephens yesterday, 6-1, 6-2. Karolina and Svetlana have played four times, each winning twice, and with each match decided by a third set.
Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Lucas Pouille, who took out Karen Khachanov yesterday. Djokovic simply demolished Pouille in the Australian Open semifinals earlier this year, dropping just four games in a match that lasted only 83 minutes.
In the first tour-level meeting between these two young Russians, Daniil Medvedev (9) vs. Andrey Rublev (Q). Rublev upset Federer yesterday, but Medvedev has been crushing most of his opposition of late.
Roberto Bautista Agut (11) vs. Richard Gasquet (PR). As per the ATP, Bautista Agut will make his top 10 debut on Monday after 275 consecutive weeks in the top 30. Well done, Roberto. The Spaniard is 4-1 against the Frenchman.
In a match between two of the ATP’s most diminutive yet speedy players, David Goffin (16) vs. Yoshihito Nishioka (Q). Nishioka defeated Goffin just two weeks ago in a third set tiebreak.
In a battle for supremacy in the Murray family, Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski vs. Feliciano Lopez and Andy Murray (PR).
