Cincinnati Open Tennis Wild Cards Feature Dimitrov, Wawrinka, and Monfils
Aug 02, 2026
The 2026 Cincinnati Open will feature a decorated group of men’s wild cards, including a former tournament champion, multiple Grand Slam winners and two fan favorites making farewell appearances.
Former Cincinnati Open champion Grigor Dimitrov, three-time Major champion Stan Wawrinka, British standout Jack Draper and French fan favorite Gael Monfils have received main draw wild cards for this year’s tournament, which will take place Aug. 8-23.
The tournament also awarded qualifying wild cards to local players JJ Wolf and Vignesh Gogineni, along with Kei Nishikori, Mackenzie McDonald and Darwin Blanch.
Above: Grigor Dimitrov. Photo credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour.
Dimitrov won the 2017 Cincinnati Open without dropping a set, capturing the first ATP Masters 1000 title of his career. The 35-year-old Bulgarian is a former world No. 3, the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion and a nine-time ATP title winner.
Monfils is expected to make his farewell Cincinnati Open appearance as he plans to retire at the end of the 2026 season. The 13-time ATP champion reached a career-high ranking of world No. 6 and made semifinal runs at Roland Garros and the US Open.
Wawrinka, who also plans to retire at the end of 2026, brings one of the most decorated resumes in the field. The 41-year-old Swiss player owns three Major titles, 16 career titles and a career-high ranking of world No. 3. He reached the Cincinnati Open semifinals in 2012 and has also made three quarterfinal appearances at the tournament.
Above: Stan Wawrinka. Photo credit: Gordons203, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Draper adds another major name to the wild card group. The 24-year-old Brit was a 2024 US Open semifinalist and won Indian Wells in 2025, rising to No. 4 in the ATP Tour rankings. This year, he defeated Novak Djokovic on his way to the Indian Wells quarterfinals and also reached the semifinals in Eastbourne.
The qualifying wild cards include two players with strong Cincinnati and Ohio ties. Wolf, 27, reached his first ATP final in Florence in 2022 and has won five Challenger titles. A Cincinnati Country Day School graduate and former Ohio State standout, Wolf was named Big Ten Player of the Year as a junior.
Gogineni, 22, is a recent Yale graduate who earned All-Ivy League honors while playing No. 1 singles. He was the 2022 Ohio High School state champion after reaching the final in two previous years and helped Mason High School win the 2019 state title.
Above: Gael Monfils. Photo credit: Tatiana from Moscow, Russia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Nishikori will also make his final Cincinnati Open appearance as he plans to retire after the 2026 season. The 36-year-old Japanese star is a former world No. 4 and the 2014 US Open finalist.
McDonald, a former NCAA singles champion at UCLA and winner of four Challenger titles, will make his fifth Cincinnati Open appearance. He reached the round of 16 at the tournament in 2023.
Blanch, an 18-year-old American, will make his Cincinnati Open debut. He won his first ATP Masters 1000 match earlier this year in Miami by defeating veteran Jan-Lennard Struff and reached as high as No. 4 as a junior player.
Tickets are on sale now at cincinnatiopen.com.
Source: Cincinnati Open. Photo credit (top): Jason Whitman/ Cincinnati Open.
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