It’s going to be a busy Friday at the Western & Southern Open as the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament plays catch-up because of rain. Ten singles matches are scheduled, encompassing the completion of the third round and quarter-finals, in addition to three second-round doubles clashes.

Five-time runner-up and No. 10 seed Novak Djokovic, looking to become the first player to win all nine Masters 1000 tournaments this week, resumes his third-round match against Grigor Dimitrov at 2-6, 6-3, 2-1 on Center. The winner will challenge Canada’s Milos Raonic later on Friday. Djokovic leads Raonic 8-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, while Dimitrov has a 3-2 advantage over Raonic. 

Djokovic has won his past five matches against fifth seed Dimitrov and all four of their hard-court meetings (leads 7-1 overall). Dimitrov has two Top 10 wins this year – both over Goffin – as he continues to find the kind of early-season form that helped him to the Australian Open quarter-finals (l. to Edmund) and a 10-3 start.

Djokovic, the 2008-09, 2011-12 and 2015 finalist, is seeking his 30th match win in Cincinnati (29-11) and has won 23 of his past 27 matches, including his fourth trophy at Wimbledon (d. Anderson). Having beaten Adrian Mannarino in the second round, the Serbian star admitted, “I’m still looking for that consistency. I think it’s quite important as the matches get tougher now and the opponents are higher-ranked. I am going to need that consistency and need to be solid and kind of hit with confidence.”

Second seed and seven-time champion Roger Federer aims to secure his 20th hard-court match win of 2018 (31-4 overall) against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina with the possibility of an all-Swiss quarter-final on the horizon against wild card Stan Wawrinka, who is returning to peak form following two knee surgeries last year. Wawrinka will first need to overcome Marton Fucsovics, also in a late night show court encounter.

Third seed Juan Martin del Potro, who beat Hyeon Chung 6-2, 6-3 before rain suspended play on Thursday prepares to face No. 15 seed Nick Kyrgios in a first-time third round clash. Del Potro, competing at a career-high of No. 3 in the ATP Rankings this week, has a 37-9 match record on the year, which includes 15 straight matches wins – including the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC (d. Anderson) and the BNP Paribas Open (d. Federer). World No. 18 Kyrgios has a 1-5 mark against Top 10 opponents in 2018.

Kevin Anderson, who is currently in sixth position in the ATP Race To London for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, takes a 34-12 season record (22-6 on hard courts) into his clash against No. 11 seed Goffin, runner-up at The O2 season finale in London last year, in a first-time meeting. Goffin, who came into the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament with a 2-5 record since falling in the Roland Garros fourth round (l. to Cecchinato), has earned confidence-boosting victories over last week’s Rogers Cup finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and Benoit Paire in Cincinnati this week. Del Potro or Goffin will play Del Potro or Kyrgios.

Elsewhere, seventh seed and 2016 titlist Marin Cilic is level with Karen Khachanov of Russia at 7-6(5), 3-6, 1-1 in their third-round match carried over from Thursday. The victor will meet No. 13 seed Pablo Carreno Busta, who was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Robin Haase in the third round.

Fifth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo advanced to the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open for the second year in a row on Thursday, beating Rogers Cup finalists Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus 6-4, 7-6(4). The Polish-Brazilian duo avenged a loss they suffered against the same team one week ago in Toronto.

The 2017 semi-finalists will get a chance to beat the opponents who eliminated them from the Cincinnati tournament a year ago. Kubot and Melo will face fourth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, who triumphed in Acapulco and Washington, D.C. earlier this season. It will be the first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting between the two teams this year.

There was an upset in the other doubles match completed thus far, with Roland Garros champion Nicolas Mahut and his partner, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, getting upset. Philipp Kohlschreiber and Fernando Verdasco defeated the Frenchmen 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 10-6.

Did You Know?
Kohlschreiber earned his first doubles win in more than 21 months. After a first-round victory in Dubai last year with Florian Mayer, the German lost 10 consecutive doubles matches.

There are only five players in the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings that hit on average at least one ace per service game in 2018.

Aces are the ultimate serve weapon, but performance varies greatly at the pinnacle of our sport with the number of aces hit per game. An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers identifies that the average amount of aces that the Top 50 hit per game is 0.54, or approximately one ace every two games.

The table below has the leading five players from the current Top 50 (as of 13 August 2018) with the highest average aces per game, and also their performance in 2017 as a comparison.

Top 50: Leading Five Players Average Aces Per Game

Imagine for a moment what it must be like to have such awesome firepower to begin a point. The influential dynamic for these five players is that they essentially only have to go and win three points in a service game, because they get to enjoy one ‘free’ point with their ace.

What’s also important to consider is that hitting the most number of aces on the ATP World Tour does not directly equate to being World No. 1. The average ranking of these five players is 19, so this also highlights that bombing aces is always nice, but there is still a lot of work to be done, as well on the return side of the equation, to win matches.

What’s fascinating is that World No. 1 Rafael Nadal actually drops to the bottom of this list, hitting the least amount of aces per game out of the Top 50 at just 0.2 aces per game, for an average of one ace out of every five service games.

The 19-year-old Canadian Denis Shapovalov leads #NextGenATP players in this category with an average of 0.72 aces per match this season. The following table highlights the Top 5 #NextGenATP players in the data set.

Top 5 #NextGen Players – Average Aces Per Game in 2018

This analysis shows that diversity of playing styles is alive and well at the pinnacle of our sport. Both John Isner and Nadal are ranked in the Top 10, but sit at either end of the spectrum with the amount of aces they hit in their service games.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the Rogers Cup & vote for who you think will win! 
Dimitrov vs Djokovic |Anderson vs Goffin | Raonic vs Shapovalov

Six members of the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings feature on Thursday at the Western & Southern Open, but standout third-round matches feature Milos Raonic, once again the Canadian No. 1, against his compatriot Denis Shapovalov and No. 10 seed Novak Djokovic versus defending champion Grigor Dimitrov.

It was back in May that Shapovalov broke Raonic’s eight-year reign as Canada’s top player, just 11 days after winning their Mutua Madrid Open third-round clash 6-4, 6-4. The significance wasn’t lost on 19-year-old Shapovalov, who confessed the victory “was definitely one of my best days on clay… To beat him, it was a huge confidence booster for me.”

Now, on the hard courts of Cincinnati, Shapovalov has since compiled an 11-10 match record and Raonic, back once again as Canada’s No. 1, is growing in confidence, with a 12-4 mark. A strong service performance from Shapovalov helped him to beat Raonic on 10 May and today, on Center Court, the #NextGenATP will have to compete with great discipline. Raonic has beaten three Top 30 players since losing in Madrid – Tomas Berdych and Lucas Pouille at the MercedesCup and David Goffin, last week, at the Rogers Cup.

Five-time runner-up Djokovic, looking to become the first player to win all nine Masters 1000 tournaments this week, has won his past five matches against fifth seed Dimitrov and all four of their hard-court meetings (leads 7-1 overall). Dimitrov has two Top 10 wins this year – both over Goffin – as he continues to find the kind of early-season form that helped him to the Australian Open quarter-finals (l. to Edmund) and a 10-3 start.

Djokovic, the 2008-09, 2011-12 and 2015 finalist, is seeking his 30th match win in Cincinnati (29-11) and has won 23 of his past 27 matches, including his fourth trophy at Wimbledon (d. Anderson). Having beaten Adrian Mannarino in the second round, the Serbian star admitted, “I’m still looking for that consistency. I think it’s quite important as the matches get tougher now and the opponents are higher-ranked. I am going to need that consistency and need to be solid and kind of hit with confidence.”

Second seed and seven-time champion Roger Federer aims to secure his 20th hard-court match win of 2018 (31-4 overall) against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina with the possibility of an all-Swiss quarter-final on the horizon against wild card Stan Wawrinka, who is returning to peak form following two knee surgeries last year. Wawrinka will first need to overcome Marton Fucsovics, also in a late night show court encounter.

Kevin Anderson, who is currently in sixth position in the ATP Race To London for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, takes a 34-12 season record (22-6 on hard courts) into his clash against No. 11 seed Goffin, runner-up at The O2 season finale in London last year, in a first-time meeting. Goffin, who came into the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament with a 2-5 record since falling in the Roland Garros fourth round (l. to Cecchinato), has earned confidence-boosting victories over last week’s Rogers Cup finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and Benoit Paire in Cincinnati this week.

Third seed Juan Martin del Potro and Hyeon Chung will need to play two matches on day four, after their second-round match was suspended due to rain on Wednesday night. Neither player has met No. 15 seed Nick Kyrgios, who awaits the victor. Elsewhere, seventh seed and 2016 titlist Marin Cilic challenges Karen Khachanov of Russia.