Preview Winston-Salem Open 2024: Draper and Cerundolo lead depleted field prior to US Open

The Winston-Salem Open is an ATP 250 event that runs the week before the US Open, so let’s see how this year’s edition might go.

The event has been around for a very long time, though it hasn’t been in Winston-Salem for more than 12 years. In fact, this year’s event will be the 13th time it is going to be held in North Carolina. The event itself dates back to 1990, when it became an event and even before that as an exhibition.

Due to its unique position in the calendar, it’s not an event that generally draws the best players in the world. Most of them are already practising and preparing for the US Open in New York. Occasionally, we’ll get a big name who hasn’t played much in the weeks before, so they’re using this event to play themselves into a rhythm ahead of the US Open.

That’s what happened in 2018 when Daniil Medvedev won the event. The champions list generally tells us what kind of players play this event regularly, and you could say they aren’t the top of tennis. They’re still wonderfully great players who have left a mark in tennis, as is the case with Pablo Carreno Busta, Roberto Bautista Agut, Kevin Andreson, John Isner, and others who won this event in the past.

Last year’s edition was won by Sebastian Baez, who won his maiden hard court trophy at the event. He is going to be back this year to try to defend his trophy, and we’ll start with him because he’s one of the favourites.

Sebastian Baez is the top seed of this year’s event, which doesn’t happen often for the Argentine. Still, he’s one of the more consistent tennis players, highlighted by his 20th-place ranking in the world. His best surface has and always will be clay, but he’s shown himself as a capable tennis player on the hard courts as well. Last year’s run was a dream one for him and quite surprising as well.

In the final, he’d face Jiri Lehecka, a far better player on hard courts and heavily favoured to win. But Baez proved himself once more by beating Lehecka and winning this trophy. Like in years past, Baez has played his best tennis on clay this year.

He’s played 10 matches on hard courts this year and is only 4-6 so far, which isn’t that impressive. It was fairly similar last year before he came to Winston-Salem, but winning 5 matches that week improved his overall score, so he’d finish last year with 9-7 on hard overall.

He’s the main favourite simply due to his ranking and his winning the event, so he's the defending champion. There are some players ahead of him on form alone and general talent, but he’s earned the honour of being mentioned first.

Another favourite is Jack Draper. Now, that’s a player who is an excellent fit on hard court, and he’s proven it several times. He was 12-6 on the surface in 2022. He went 15-7 last year and is 12-7 this year. He’s also playing in really solid form right now, as witnessed by his recent run at the Cincinnati Open.

Draper has never played at the Winston-Salem Open before, so he might need a match or two to get used to it, but on talent alone, the Brit should be the main favourite to win this one. His form is the best of all the players in the draw. His talent is probably among the best, and his track record on North American hard courts has been really good.

One thing to remember about him is that he’s still in the draw for the Cincinnati Open, with a chance to book a semi-final on Saturday. If he continues his deep run at the event, there is a big chance he’ll simply withdraw from it, especially if he makes the semi-final or final.

He wouldn’t want to put that much fatigue on his body ahead of the US Open, so there is a chance that he might not play. If he does, he’ll certainly be in contention to win the trophy he needs. It’s time for him to start winning trophies.

One player who isn’t a seed at the event but could do really well is Borna Coric. The Croatian was hailed as a superb tennis player many years ago, but over the past few years, he's kind of fallen off slightly.

Even after winning the Cincinnati Masters two years ago, Coric couldn’t really keep up the solid play and struggled with his form. The quality though was never questioned, and he’s generally been good on North American hard courts. They play quicker, and he has a powerful serve, which is a nice combo. Coric has demonstrated a solid level in recent weeks, and having played here in the past should help him against the rest of the field.

He stood in the semi-final last year and was barely beaten by Sebastian Baez, so he’s quite familiar with the event and has shown himself to play well here in the past. The draw he got is pretty fascinating because he might face Sebastian Baez again here. It would happen in the 2nd round as the Argentine has a 1st round BYE, while Coric would have to beat Sumit Nagal. I think that’s very likely to happen, and if he beats Baez too, then that momentum could carry him even further.

Another player we have to mention is Francisco Cerundolo. He’s the wild card in all of this because he just recently won the Croatia Open in Umag and generally seems quite confident these days. His level is very streaky, very up and down, and hard courts are not his best surface. Still, he’s very aggressive and can bombard from the baseline as well as anybody, which makes him dangerous.

With a few wins, Cerundolo can certainly do some damage even though he has a pretty bad 3-7 overall record on hard courts this year.

While those were the favourites, a couple of players could surprise with a deep run. It doesn’t mean that some of these players will end up winning the event, but they could challenge for it.

One of those players is Juncheng Shang, popularly known as Jerry Shang. The 19-year-old has been known as a pretty promising player for a while, and he’s quite familiar with these North American courts, having practiced here for some years.

He recently had a really strong showing in Atlanta, making the semi-final from the qualifiers and beating a couple of really solid players. His Washington Open run ended in the second round due to a retirement, but he’s shown enough to prove that he could do some damage here.

He went 21-14 on hard courts last year and is 15-7 this year. That’s pretty solid, and it is certainly better than Francisco Comesana, who is his first opponent. After that, he’ll face Lorenzo Sonego, who is a very beatable player, and then it would be Cerundolo. None of those are matchups that should scare him, and if he wins all of them, he’ll be in the semi-final.

Another player who could do something is Nuno Borges. The Portuguese player has been flying under the radar for a while, but as he proved in Bastad recently, he’s a good player. Beating Nadal on clay is not easy, and he was able to do that and make it look really easy.

His form has cooled off in recent weeks, and he’s not impressed with the US Open series so far, but he’s certainly quality enough to make a run like this. He went 20-11 on hard courts last year and is 17-10 this year, so he’ll win at least one or two matches here.

That would get him fairly close to the semi-final, and his draw isn't that terrible either. Another veteran who could do something is Adrian Mannarino. He’s a former champion here, having won a couple of years ago, but his form has been all over the place recently.

He has struggled significantly and likely won’t do much at the event, but we have to mention him out of respect for what he did at the event in the past and also his talent. Talent-wise, Mannarino is a really solid player, but recently, things haven’t worked out for him. That should motivate him, though, and a motivated tennis player is a dangerous one.

Overall, it promises to be a really solid event. We won’t see the best of the best at the event, but sometimes, matches between lower-ranked players prove to be even more exciting as they’re more evenly matched.

Most of these players don’t get a chance to play for trophies often, so all of them should be motivated by the somewhat depleted draw. We’ll see which one of them wins the trophy in the coming 7 days after which the US Open begins.