Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek named top seeds at Cincinnati Masters

World number ones Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek, the reigning US Open champions, were named Monday as the top seeds for next week’s WTA and ATP Cincinnati Masters tournament. The tournament is the last major hardcourt tuneup event for this year’s US Open, the final Grand Slam showdown of the year that begins on August 28. The top 16 players in the men’s and women’s world rankings were named Cincinnati seeds with the top eight receiving byes into the second round. Alcaraz is coming off his second Grand Slam crown last month at Wimbledon. The 20-year-old Spaniard is also the top seed in this week’s ATP hardcourt event at Toronto. Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland, won her third French Open crown earlier this year and will try to match her back-to-back titles on the red clay at Roland Garros with back-to-back titles on the New York hardcourts. Serbian star Novak Djokovic, owner of a record 23 men’s Grand Slam titles after capturing this year’s French and Australian Opens, will be the second seed at Cincinnati, where he is a two-time champion and five-time runner-up. Daniil Medvedev, the 2019 winner, is seeded third on the men’s side. Reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka is the women’s second seed followed by American Jessica Pegula, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, runner-up at last year’s US Open and the past two Wimbledons.