DRAW Tennis in the Land Cleveland Open including Lois Boisson, Maya Joint v Eva Lys and Liudmila Samsonova

oissonThe draw has been confirmed for Tennis in the Land also known as the Cleveland Open which is due to take place between August 17-25 in Ohio headlined by Liudmila Samsonova, Lois Boisson, Eva Lys and Maya Joint.

Samsonova is top seed and opens up against Caroline Dolehide then the likely opponent is a certain Peyton Stearns who is a local hero who has spent the week in the local area doing outings including to the Cincinnati Bengals, NFL team.

Stearns would usually be a seed for an event like this especially with a lesser field but is a dangerous unseeded player instead in this case. She opens up against a qualifier who will shortly be placed. Lois Boisson hasn't played since last month where she won the title in Hamburg after her Roland Garros run so she will hope to continue that winning field.

Albeit in a surface unlike grass where she failed on in Wimbledon qualifying and clay where she excels so it'll be interesting to see how she approaches the hard courts ahead of the US Open. She faces Jil Teichmann in what is an interesting section including Samsonova and Stearns. She could face Moyuka Uchijima in the second round who takes on a qualifier.

The tie of the first round is Maya Joint who has already won titles this year against Eva Lys. The German in reality should've beaten Madison Keys last week in Cincinnati and continues to get better and better. She needs that landmark week though and this could be it. She is having less trouble qualifying for tournaments now and jokes about being ranked World No.69 now.

But in Joint she faces a formidable rising opponent especially on hard courts. The winner of that has a pretty comfortable progression with either Katrina Scott or Polina Kudermetova. The winner would likely face Hailey Baptiste or potentially Kimberly Birrell who are on a collision course. Elena-Gabriela Ruse also sits in that section. Sonay Kartal, the rising Brit sits just below and faces Solana Sierra who was the player who took out Katie Boulter at Wimbledon as a lucky loser.

Kartal was on the verge of becoming British No.1 around the grass court season but has now become British No.2 with Raducanu now well in front once more. Boulter who plays this week also has work to do in the Brit stakes but Kartal who reached the final of Monastir last year has shown in the past that this time of the year is one that she excels in so she could be a dark horse. She could face Lin Zhu if she gets through her opener.

While Joint v Lys is intriguing so is another tie featuring a rising teen as Iva Jovic, the American ace faces off against Anastasia Potapova in the opening round. The winner faces Yuliia Starodubtseva or Ann Li. Speaking priorly of Boulter, she has got a wildcard for this week and faces Yue Yuan in the opening round. She could then take on Lucia Bronzetti or Viktorija Golubic. One to watch under the radar as she aims to catch alight again.

Finally bottom section sees Xinyu Wang face Suzan Lamens. The winner then likely faces Greet Minnen. The big news also is that there will be a new champion as McCartney Kessler will not defend her title. The American has decided against it and while they have got Boulter in as a wildcard, the tournament perhaps has not benefited as it would've hoped.

Emma Navarro for instance has entered Monterrey late and Boulter for instance likely is only in late in Cleveland as her and Alex de Minaur didn't get a call-up to play mixed doubles. Perhaps a bit bizarre given that the main couple in that draw was Tsitsidosa, they withdrew and broke up. While Jack Draper in particular has had about four partners due to withdrawals. Emma Navarro too has decided to play Monterrey leaving Jannik Sinner scrambling.

Boulter and De Minaur whether jokingly or not previously asked for a spot in the tournament recently and it seems when that wasn't granted she decided to play this week. Good for her ranking but for an actual engaged tennis couple not to be there is an interesting choice. Cleveland's gain in the end.