The ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters, the final high-profile elite hard-court tournament ahead of the US Open kicking off on August 26, delivered a wave of stunning upsets and dramatic matches on Wednesday. Headlining the day’s surprises was American Tommy Paul, who fought off a match point, navigated multiple rain delays, and pulled off a 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory over tournament top seed Alexander Zverev to book his spot in the men’s quarter-finals.
Zverev, the reigning French Open champion, looked poised to seal a straight-set win when he held a match point at 6-5 in the second-set tiebreak, but a misfired volley into the net wasted his golden chance. The German looked to have gotten back on track in the decisive third set, breaking Paul’s serve to take a 4-2 lead. However, Paul responded with back-to-back breaks of his own to move ahead 5-4, then held his nerve in the final service game to close out the upset. The result marked Paul’s third win over Zverev in their past four head-to-head meetings.
“I’m not sure how I did it,” Paul told reporters after the match. “I put some returns in, he gave me some looks at second serves and he threw in a few doubles (faults). That always helps a ton. I went after the ball a bit more, I was having fun out there. I hope I can keep building on this and peak at the US Open.”
The two-and-a-half-hour clash was far from smooth sailing for either player: it was halted for 90 minutes mid-way through the seventh game of the second set due to heavy rain, with two additional five-minute breaks to allow staff to dry standing water off the court before play could resume.
Paul will next face Italian rising star Flavio Cobolli, who himself pulled off a comeback victory to advance. Cobolli, this year’s Roland Garros runner-up, outlasted red-hot Spaniard Rafael Jodar 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 after two and a half hours of grueling competition. All three of Cobolli’s wins in Cincinnati this year have gone the full three-set distance, and the run marks his second Masters 1000 quarter-final appearance of the season, following his run in Madrid. The result also prevented 19-year-old Jodar, who has been in scintillating form this season, from reaching his eighth quarter-final in nine events.
“At the end of the second set and start of the third I told myself to believe, try on every point,” Cobolli said after his win. “I knew I had a chance. Rafa has had an unbelievable season but maybe he was a bit tired. At the end I deserved to win as I was fresher than him. I pushed to my limit to get through. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m really strong.”
The upsets extended beyond Zverev’s exit, as Argentinian Thiago Tirante continued his extraordinary Cinderella run in Cincinnati. After beating 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the second round, Tirante recovered from a set down to defeat Jakub Mensik 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the first Masters 1000 quarter-final of his career. In another men’s third-round match, French youngster Arthur Fils dominated fifth seed Alex de Minaur of Australia, cruising to a straightforward 6-3, 6-4 victory to secure his quarter-final spot.
In the women’s draw, defending champion Iga Swiatek remained solid through her third-round clash, defeating France’s Diane Parry 6-3, 6-3 to advance. The seventh-seeded Pole, a six-time Grand Slam champion, converted her fourth match point to seal the 88-minute win, after being broken when she served for the match at 5-2 in the second set. Swiatek will face a rematch of last week’s Toronto final against Elena Rybakina, who eased past Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-4 to book her quarter-final spot. Swiatek defeated Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion, to claim her first title of 2026 in Toronto last week.
Two current Grand Slam champions suffered surprise exits on Wednesday. Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk rallied from a set down to knock out fifth seed and French Open champion Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-0, 6-2. Sixth seed and Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova fell to American Amanda Anisimova 6-1, 6-4 in another match disrupted by rain. Anisimova will next face third-seeded compatriot Jessica Pegula, who overcame a second-set wobble to beat Romanian veteran Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.