Murray, American Trio Receive Cincinnati Wild Cards

Two-time champion Andy Murray and Americans Tommy Paul, Tennys Sandgren and Frances Tiafoe have been awarded wild cards for the Western & Southern Open.

Murray, who claimed the Cincinnati title in 2008 and 2011, is the sixth Western & Southern Open champion entered in this year’s tournament, joining Daniil Medvedev (2019), Novak Djokovic (2018), Grigor Dimitrov (2017), Marin Cilic (2016) and Rafael Nadal (2013) in the ATP Masters 1000 field. The tournament will be held from 20-28 August at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A three-time Grand Slam winner, Murray is a 46-time tour-level titlist. In January 2019, Murray underwent a hip resurfacing operation. He came back to play doubles last June, then returned to singles competition at last year’s Western & Southern Open before winning the title at Antwerp in October. The Western & Southern Open, where he owns a 31-12 singles record, will be Murray’s first tour-level action in 2020.

Paul started the 2020 campaign by reaching his first career ATP Tour semi-final at Adelaide. One month later he was a quarter-finalist in Acapulco. In 2019, he was 30-5 on the ATP Challenger Tour with three titles. The 23-year-old will be making his second Western & Southern Open main draw appearance.

Sandgren has reached the Australian Open quarter-finals twice in the past three years. In 2019, Sandgren did not drop a set in Auckland where he claimed his first ATP Tour title. Sandgren played two seasons at the University of Tennessee where he led the Volunteers to the NCAA team final in 2010. He will be making his debut in the main draw of the Western & Southern Open.

Tiafoe was a quarter-finalist at the 2019 Australian Open, which came less than a year after he claimed his first career ATP Tour title at Delray Beach in February 2018. In 2017, Tiafoe defeated his highest-ranked opponent when he upset World No. 7 Alexander Zverev in Cincinnati to reach the Round of 16. The 22-year-old will be making his fourth appearance at the Western & Southern Open, where he has a 3-3 record.

Sixteen Top 20 players in the FedEx ATP Rankings are on the entry list of this month's Western & Southern Open, the first tournament to be played since the ATP Tour was suspended in early March. Twelve additional players will join the field through a two-round qualifying event.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/33laVfX