Day 4 of the 2024 Cincinnati Open was filled with drama and despair as many title hopefuls bid goodbye to the tournament. Defending champion Coco Gauff was among those shown the exit door on August 15, as the 20-year-old Olympian lost to Yulia Putintseva.
A few more tennis stars were in action on that day—including Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Jasmine Paolini. Sabalenka, Zverev and Paolini were victorious in their contests, while Alcaraz’s match against Gael Monfils was suspended midway due to the rain.
Before the day ended at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, a few big-name players became victims of upset defeats. Take a look below:
Some of the most shocking results from Day 4 of the 2024 Cincinnati Open
5. Jelena Ostapenko
Ostapenko endured yet another head-scratching loss on the WTA Tour after being defeated in the second round of the 2024 Cincinnati Open. The Latvian made a great start to the year with two WTA 500 titles and regained her confidence with a quarterfinal finish at Wimbledon. But she seems to have once again lost her groove as she had just one win (d. Paula Badosa in Canadian Open 1R) since London.
Ostapenko was seeded eighth at the 2024 Cincinnati Open and received a first-round bye. In the second round, she faced 21-year-old Elina Avanesyan. Ostapenko was not at her best in the first set, but her fortune was aided by Avanesyan’s inability to hold her serve.
Avanesyan regrouped in the second set and broke Ostapenko three times to level the score. The former Roland Garros champion’s game completely unraveled in the third set to Avanesyan’s benefit.
The Armenian closed out the contest (2-6, 6-2, 6-2) on her second match point. Ostapenko would hope to quickly turn around her form as she has to yield quarterfinal points in the 2024 US Open.
4. Grigor Dimitrov
Dimitrov seems to have not fully recovered from his injury in the Wimbledon Championships after suffering another early loss on the ATP Tour. The Bulgarian veteran kicked off his campaign at the 2024 Cincinnati Open against Fabian Marozsan.
One break of Marozsan’s serve was enough for Dimitrov to take the first set. The talented Hungarian equaled the scoreline in the second set by breaking Dimitrov twice.
Marozsan stepped up his level in the deciding set to break Dimitrov once again and he did not face breakpoint on his serve to win the contest: 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. The result means Dimitrov will head to the US Open with just one win under his belt (d. Rinky Hijikata at Canadian Open 1R) in the North American hardcourt swing.
3. Stefanos Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas came to the Cincinnati Open after an upset second-round loss at the Canadian Open. He was seeded ninth in Cincinnati and came from a set down to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff in three sets in the first round. The 26-year-old faced British No. 1 Jack Draper in the second round on Day 4 of the tournament.
Tsitsipas and Draper split the first two sets after breaking each other once. In the third set, the Greek broke the Brit to go 5-4 up but failed to serve out the match. Draper took advantage of Tsitsipas’ lapse and rattled off three games on the trot to win the match: 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
2. Elena Rybakina
Rybakina returned to action for the first time since the Wimbledon Championships in early July. She had pulled out of the Paris Olympics and Canadian Open due to acute bronchitis and came to Cincinnati as the fourth seed. The Kazakh faced Leylah Fernandez in the second round of the 2024 Cincinnati Open, and both women were far from their best.
Breaks of serves were plenty throughout the match, but Rybakina managed to edge past Fernandez to take the first set and serve for the win at 6-5 in the second. The Canadian staved off two match points to force a tiebreaker and leveled the scoreline in the second set.
Fernandez pulled together her game in the third set to hold her serve and break Rybakina once to win the match: 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4. Rybakina never looked settled into the contest as she committed 50 unforced errors—including 17 double faults—and won just 35% of the points on her second serve.
1. Coco Gauff
Gauff was the reigning champion at the 2024 Cincinnati Open. She received a first-round bye and faced Yulia Putintseva in the second round on August 15. Putintseva took a one-set advantage after edging past Gauff in the first set. The American No. 1 settled the scoreline in the second set to force a decider.
Gauff raced to 4-2 in the third set but could not hold the lead. Putintseva picked up the next four games to win the match (6-4, 2-6, 6-4) and oust the defending champion. This was Putintseva’s third top 10 win of the year.
Meanwhile, Gauff will lose her World No. 2 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka after a short-lived campaign at Cincinnati. She will head into her 2024 US Open title defense with an underwhelming record in the North American hardcourt swing.
