It’s Semifinal Saturday in Cincinnati, with the top two seeds in both men’s and women’s singles just one win away from setting up blockbuster finals on Sunday.
On Saturday in Cincinnati, Novak Djokovic and Sascha Zverev reignite what has been a dramatic and competitive rivalry. Meanwhile, both Coco Gauff and Hubert Hurkacz vie for their first victories over the top seeds (Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz, respectively). And Aryna Sabalenka looks to avenge an extremely painful loss from this year’s Roland Garros semifinals against Karolina Muchova.
Plus, the women’s doubles championship match will be played on Saturday night, and it features three Americans, as it’s Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez (3) vs. Alycia Parks and Taylor Townsend. Melichar-Martinez and Perez were finalists here a year ago, while this is the first tournament for the partnership of Parks and Townsend.
Throughout the tournament, this preview will analyze the day’s two most prominent matches, while highlighting the other notable matches on the schedule. Saturday’s play gets underway at 11:00am local time.
Karolina Muchova vs. Aryna Sabalenka (2) – Not Before 1:00pm on Center Court
Sabalenka started this year with an 0-3 record in Major semifinals, yet seemingly overcame those demons in Melbourne, defeating Magda Linette in the semis and going on to win her first Major. But a few months later in Paris, that scar tissue resurfaced against Muchova. After the two players split the first two sets in tiebreaks, Aryna was up 5-2 in the third, and even held a match point. However, Karolina would win the last five games, and 20 of the last 24 points, to take the match.
Sabalenka would also go on to lose another heartbreaking semifinal just a month later at Roland Garros, to Ons Jabeur. But outside of the Majors, Aryna is a perfect 5-0 in semifinals this season, and 10-0 in sets. This run matches her best result in Cincy, as she also reached the semis a year ago, losing to eventual champion Caroline Garcia in three sets.
Muchova went on to lose a great championship match to Swiatek in Paris, and then suffered an injury at Wimbleon. But Karolina is back in strong form, claiming a trio of three-setters earlier this week. And she played just three games in Friday’s quarterfinals before Marie Bouzkova retired due to injury.
Their only other previous encounter occurred four years ago on a hard court in Zhuhai, which went to Sabalenka after two tight sets. In their rubber match on Saturday, I expect Aryna to exact revenge for what happened in Paris. Sabalenka looked sharp in her victories the last two days over Daria Kasatkina and Ons Jabeur, and her game is well-suited for the fast-playing hard courts in Cincinnati.
Sascha Zverev (16) vs. Novak Djokovic (2) – Not Before 6:00pm on Center Court
Djokovic leads this rivalry 7-4, and 6-3 on hard courts. And they’ve played a lot of prominent matches. Out of Zverev’s four victories, two of them came in championship matches (Rome, ATP Finals), one was the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics, where Novak would eventually fail to medal, and the other was the semifinals of the 2021 ATP Finals, their most recent encounter.
However, Djokovic has been the one to claim all three of their contests at Slams, including a five-setter in the semifinals of the US Open two years ago, though many point to what that match took out of Novak as the reason why he would lose in the finals to Daniil Medvedev. And that loss of course prevented Djokovic from completing the calendar-year Grand Slam.
This is the first tournament in North America for Djokovic since that event, and he’s been dominant this week, as he’s yet to drop a set. This is a first Masters 1000 semifinal for Zverev since coming back from the ankle injury he suffered at last year’s French Open, and he beat Medvedev for the first time in four tries this season on Thursday. The 2021 Cincinnati champion is on a nine-match win streak here.
But after missing last year’s US Open due to his vaccination status, and losing an epic Wimbledon final to Carlos Alcaraz, Djokovic is a man on a mission heading into the last Major of the year. Novak is a considerable favorite to advance to Sunday’s championship match.
Other Notable Matches on Saturday:
Iga Swiatek (1) vs. Coco Gauff (7) – Swiatek is a decisive 7-0 against Gauff, and 14-0 in sets. With her new coaching team of Pere Riba and Brad Gilbert, Coco has been playing extremely well during the North American hard court swing, but is she ready to challenge the World No.1? Both players advanced rather comfortably in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Carlos Alcaraz (1) vs. Hubert Hurkacz – Alcaraz has already survived three grueling three-setters this week, over Jordan Thompson, Tommy Paul, and Max Purcell. Hurkacz notably took out both of last year’s finalists, Borna Coric and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Carlitos leads their head-to-head 2-0, which includes a three-set victory just last week in Toronto, though four of the five sets they’ve contested have gone into tiebreaks.
Saturday’s full Order of Play is here.
