Novak Djokovic battled punishing heat and humidity at the Cincinnati Open on Saturday, but it was not enough to overcome Thiago Agustin Tirante, falling 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a match that may mark his final appearance at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.
The second round duel stretched past two and a half hours, proving too much for the 24 time Grand Slam champion, who was playing his first match since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon semifinals more than a month ago.
Top seeded Alexander Zverev, the French Open champion who lost to Sinner in the Wimbledon final, had a tougher path to victory. He squeezed out an opening 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Cameron Norrie in a match that lasted two hours and 45 minutes and concluded at 2:15am.
Norrie has now lost all eight of his meetings with Zverev, who won the Cincinnati title five years ago and hopes a return to Ohio helps him recover from an abrupt exit in Canada last week.
Norrie secured the opening set before Zverev found his rhythm to level the match. Norrie saved six break points in a 12 minute game to start the deciding set, but was broken twice as Zverev advanced.
“I needed to get a match rhythm,” Zverev said. “The confidence was not there after Canada. The first set was not great, but the other two were at a high level, and I’m happy about that.”
Djokovic, who claimed the last of his three Cincinnati titles in 2023, took the opening set against Argentina’s Tirante with little fuss. But the sweltering afternoon temperatures took a toll.
“It was a combination of the heat and humidity, all those things,” he said. “Everything involved makes it worse.”
Djokovic won a brutal 18 minute third game of the second set, saving four break points over nine deuces. But he was bent over in distress between several points and even dropped to his hands and knees after one particularly gruelling exchange. He took a medical timeout after that game, with a physio and then a doctor coming on court with assessments and ice towels.
After Tirante took the second set, both players cooled off in the locker room. Slightly revived, Djokovic set the pace again in the deciding set. But it all went wrong in the ninth game, when Djokovic saved three break points before getting it wrong on a drop shot to bring up a fourth break chance that his opponent converted.
Tirante clinched the biggest win of his career in the next game as Djokovic again failed to land a drop shot on match point. The Serb, who must now regroup before the US Open starts on August 30, admitted he might have played his last match in Cincinnati.
“It looks like I won’t be back, unfortunately, to play here,” he said.
Tirante called the win the best of his career. “I managed the nerves of playing a legend like Novak. It was all so much pressure.”
In the WTA draw, Philippines sensation Alexandra Eala advanced to the third round 6-1, 3-0 as injured Elena-Gabriela Ruse retired from their match during a weather delay. The Romanian had received treatment on her right ankle just before play was halted by a thunderstorm, and Ruse pulled the plug during the delay.
Eala, the emerging WTA star who captured her first WTA title in Washington, DC, this month, will next play ninth seeded American Amanda Anisimova, who beat Turk Zeynep Sonmez 6-2, 6-3.
“I was playing well and feeling really focused,” Eala said. “I tried to stay in the zone. A retirement is not the way you want to end a match. Injuries are not fun.”
Roland Garros finalist Maja Chwalinska advanced 6-2, 6-2 over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa. Wimbledon winner Linda Noskova followed suit with her 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Britain’s Katie Boulter.
There was heartbreak for Payton Stearns, who grew up just blocks from the tennis centre. She lost 7-6 (9/7), 1-6, 7-5 to Dane Clara Tauson, who played through back pain but rallied from 4-1 down in the final set to win.
The day ended with a mix of upsets, grinding victories, and injury retirements, but Djokovic’s departure cast the longest shadow as he hinted this could be his Cincinnati goodbye.
