Photo: Ben Solomon/Provided by W&S Open
Tennis stars including Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek are slated to play at the Western & Southern Open.
Tennis, anyone?
The answer better be yes as Cincinnati once again gets ready to host the Western & Southern Open, taking place Aug. 13-21.
The star-studded tennis tournament has released its list of initial entrants for the ATP and WTA tour, including "two-time winner and 23-time major champion Serena Williams," reads a release. (Williams was also recently in Cincinnati to speak at Black Tech Week.)
"The fields include the world’s top 41 men and 39 women, led by No.1 players Daniil Medvedev and Iga Swiatek. Together, 11 former tournament winners and 19 Grand Slam major champions are on the entry list," the release continues.
Others slated to appear include past tournament winners like Victoria Azarenka, Madison Keys, Garbiñe Muguruz and Karolina Pliskova for the WTA and Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov, Marin Cilic and Novak Djokovic for the ATP.
Men will be competing for a $5 million prize, while women seek $2.8 million.
Men's and women's singles finals will take place on Aug. 21. Multi-day packages are sold-out but single-day tickets are available at wsopen.com.
See the full player entry list at wsopen.com/players.
The historic Western & Southern Open is an ATP Masters 1000 and a WTA 1000 tournament. The first ball to hit the court in the Open (originally the Cincinnati Masters) was in 1899, when the matches were held at the current-day site of Xavier University. It has been held outside of the city four other times — in 1914 and 1917, it was held in Indianapolis, and in 1919 and 1920, the tournament was held in Fort Wayne.
According to Western & Southern, the Open creates about $70 million in economic impact for the city and has raised more than $11 million for charity. The Open says nearly 200,000 fans from across American and 35 countries make the pilgrimage to the series annually, and more than 50 million across the globe watch the tournament.
The Western & Southern Open takes place Aug. 13-21 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center (5460 Courseview Drive, Mason). For more information or tickets, visit wsopen.com.
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