Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek open as top seeds in Western & Southern Open

Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek, the top-ranked players in tennis, will be the No. 1 seeds in the Western & Southern Open, which kicks off this weekend at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, according to a press release.

The seeded players in each tour’s draw will be the 16 highest-ranked players in the world, based on Monday’s Pepperstone ATP Rankings and Hologic WTA Tour Rankings.

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The top eight players from each tour will receive byes into the second round.

Two Americans, No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 7 Coco Gauff, along with defending Western & Southern Open champion No. 6 Caroline Garcia join Swiatek in the Top 8 WTA seeds.

No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic is a two-time Western & Southern Open champion and has reached the final on five other occasions. Daniil Medvedev, the 2019 Western & Southern Open champion, is the No. 3 seed.

Seeded players without a bye will compete in their respective first-round matches early next week. Those players include three former Western & Southern Open champions (No. 15 Madison Keys, defending champion and No. 15 seed Borna Coric and No. 16 Alexander Zverev).

First-round participants also includes No. 9 Petra Kvitova, last year’s runner-up, Wimbledon champion No. 10 Marketa Vondrousova and Americans Taylor Fritz (No. 9), Frances Tiafoe (No. 10) and Tommy Paul (No. 14).

The group of unseeded players in the tournament is headlined by a pair of two-time Western & Southern Open Champions in Victoria Azarenka and Andy Murray.

The first round of the Western & Southern Open will begin for the men of the ATP Tour on Sunday, Aug. 13. Both tours will have first-round matches on Monday, Aug. 14 and Tuesday, Aug. 15.

A handful of second-round matches, which may include players who received byes, will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 15, with the remainder scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 16.

Western & Southern Open seeds (WTA)

1. Iga Swiatek (Poland)

2. Aryna Sabalenka

3. Jessica Pegula (USA)

4. Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan)

5. Ons Jabeur (Tunisia)

6. Caroline Garcia (France)

7. Coco Gauff (USA)

8. Maria Sakkari (Greece)

9. Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic)

10. Marketa Vondrousova (Czech Republic)

11. Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic)

12. Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil)

13. Belinda Bencic (Switzerland)

14. Daria Kasatkina

15. Madison Keys (USA)

16. Veronika Kudermetova

Western and Southern Open seeds (ATP)

1. Carlos Alcaraz (Spain)

2. Novak Djokovic (Serbia)

3. Daniil Medvedev

4. Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece)

5. Casper Rudd (Norway)

6. Holger Rune (Denmark)

7. Andrey Rublev

8. Jannik Sinner (Italy)

9. Taylor Fritz (USA)

10. Frances Tiafoe (USA)

11. Karen Khachanov

12. Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada)

13. Cameron Norrie (Great Britain)

14. Tommy Paul (USA)

15. Borna Coric (Croatia)

16. Alexander Zverev (Germany)

The Western & Southern Open begins on Saturday with qualifying rounds and the open singles champions will be crowned during the finals on Sunday, Aug. 20.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Alcaraz, Swiatek open as top seeds in Western & Southern Open