Second round singles action continues on Sunday.
The second seeds in both the men’s and women’s singles draws make their 2025 Cincinnati debuts on Sunday. Carlos Alcaraz is actually on a two-match losing streak at this event, after losing the epic 2023 final to Novak Djokovic, and being upset in this same round a year ago by Gael Monfils. Carlitos begins his 2025 Cincy campaign by facing a man who took a set off him this year at Roland Garros, Damir Dzumhur.
Second-seeded Coco Gauff won this title in 2023, just a few weeks before claiming her first Major in New York. But last week in Montreal, she was upset by eventual champion Victoria Mboko, at a tournament where Coco’s double fault woes resurfaced. And on Sunday, she plays Xinyu Wang, who upset Gauff just two months in Berlin.
Throughout the tournament, this preview will analyze the day’s two most prominent matches, while highlighting the other notable matches on the schedule. Sunday’s play gets underway at 11:00am local time.
Xinyu Wang vs. Coco Gauff (2) – Second on Center Court
Gauff is 33-11 on the year, but just 2-3 since winning the French Open. Grass remains her weakest surface, losing 6-3, 6-3 to Xinyu in her first post-Paris competition. Coco won two matches last week in Montreal, yet even those victories were not pretty: she served 37 double faults across those two wins. And outside of her 2023 Cincinnati title run, Gauff has never advanced beyond this round here.
Xinyu is a 23-year-old ranked 37th in the world, and is 19-17 this season. Her best results thus far have come in doubles, as she won the 2023 French Open alongside Su-wei Hsieh. In singles, Wang most notably reached her first WTA semifinal last fall in Wuhan. Her victory on Friday was just her second in Cincinnati.
Xinyu plays a very aggressive baseline game, and is capable of dictating play against Gauff, especially when Coco is off her game as she’s been so far this summer. But I expect the 2023 champ to up her level, and the only other time she faced Wang, she defeated her comfortably by a score of 6-0, 6-4. So while another tight contest on Sunday feels likely, I favor Gauff to advance.
Damir Dzumhur vs. Carlos Alcaraz (2) – Third on Center Court
Like Gauff, Alcaraz is another top player who has suffered from dips in form throughout the season, though has still managed to achieve tremendous success in 2025. Carlitos is 48-6 this year, and before losing in the Wimbledon final to Jannik Sinner, was on a 24-match winning streak. But within that winning streak, he unnecessarily allowed his opponents to win sets quite often. That includes Dzumhur, as Alcaraz’s game went astray during the third set of their Roland Garros matchup, before the eventual champ prevailed in four.
Dzumhur is a tour veteran with a record of 18-17 this year at ATP level, and beat Mattia Bellucci in a pair of tiebreak-sets in the first round. However, that was his first career win at this tournament, and most of Damir’s best results came at the end of the last decade. He also does not possess any formidable weapons that should threaten Alcaraz. But as we saw a few months ago in Paris, his consistency was enough to earn a set from Carlitos, and we’ve seen Alcaraz suffer some surprising early-round losses in recent times, including here last year.
Still, the 2023 runner-up remains a strong favorite in this second round match. Coming off his first loss to his main rival, Sinner, in nearly two years, I’m quite curious to see how Alcaraz responds in Cincinnati and New York, on Sinner’s preferred surface.
Other Notable Matches on Sunday:
Jasmine Paolini (7) vs. Maria Sakkari – Paolini is 28-13 in 2025, yet has been slumping a bit of late, dropping five of her last eight matches. Sakkari owns a losing record on the season, and while she is 2-1 against the Italian, Paolini took their only matchup on a hard court.
Kimberly Birrell vs. Jessica Pegula (4) – A year ago, Pegula was the runner-up both here and in New York, but arrives this year having lost three of her last four matches. Birrell has never advanced beyond the second round of a WTA 1000 event.
Ben Shelton (5) vs. Camilo Ugo Carabelli – Shelton is coming off the biggest title of his career in Toronto, a title he won just three days before this opening round encounter. Carabelli defeated Kei Nishikori on Friday, though the Argentine is mostly a clay court specialist.
Barbora Krejcikova vs. Elina Svitolina (10) – Krejcikova is just 6-5 during another season in her career that has been derailed by injury. Svitolina is 35-12 on the year, and has reached the quarterfinals or better three times in Cincy. Barbora has claimed both of their previous meetings, but both took place on clay.
Sunday’s full Order of Play is here.
