Swiatek, Rybakina, Paolini, Zheng return in stacked Cincinnati draw

Seven of the Top 10 players in the PIF WTA Rankings will be in action at next week's Cincinnati Open, and the draw for the WTA 1000 event matches its star power. 

After skipping this week's event in Toronto, top seed Iga Swiatek, No.4 Elena Rybakina, No.5 Jasmine Paolini and No.7 Zheng Qinwen debut in the hard-court summer among the tournament's Top 8 seeds, joined by defending champion Coco Gauff (No.2), Aryna Sabalenka (No.3), Jessica Pegula (No.6) and Jelena Ostapenko (No.8) -- and all have received a first-round bye in the 64-player draw. 

Cincinnati: Scores | Draws | Order of Play

In the projected semifinals, Sabalenka landed in the top half of the draw with Swiatek, while Rybakina landed in the bottom half with Gauff. Swiatek's tournament will begin against either Ajla Tomljanovic or a qualifier, while another qualifier or Yulia Putintseva will be Gauff's first opponent in her title defense.

In her first match as the Olympic champion, Zheng -- who beat Swiatek in the semifinals before a routine win over Donna Vekic earned her gold -- will play either Mubadala Citi DC Open finalist Marie Bouzkova or a qualifier, with a possible third round match against any of a decorated quartet of players in the draw's bottom half.

In Zheng's section, No.12 seed Ons Jabeur opens against 2021 French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while wild card Caroline Wozniacki faces Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina for the third time this year. Kalinina won both their previous matches: a three-setter in Miami, where she saved a match point, and a straight-sets affair in Charleston.

In the same half, Rybakina will face either 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez or China's Zhang Shuai in her first match since Wimbledon. The Kazakh withdrew from both the Olympics and Toronto with bronchitis. 

On the other side, two-time Cincinnati champion and No.14 seed Victoria Azarenka could be a third-round opponent for Sabalenka -- after the pair just played in the quarterfinals in Washington, D.C. 

In other notable first-round action, No.11 seed Emma Navarro, through to her first WTA 1000 semifinal in Toronto, will face Roland Garros semifinalist Mirra Andreeva, with the winner to play either 2016 champion Karolina Pliskova or Viktoriya Tomova. Vekic, the No.16 seed, will face former Top 10 player Beatriz Haddad Maia, while 2023 Roland Garros finalist Karolina Muchova and 2024 Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska will play for the right to face Pegula in the bottom half.

Main-draw action at the Lindner Family Tennis Center begins Tuesday, but qualifying begins Sunday, and sees former World No.1 Naomi Osaka compete in qualifying for the first time since 2018. She’ll face Anna Blinkova in the first round.