Play at the Cincinnati Open was delayed Monday, disrupting the tennis schedule and leaving fans waiting for matches to get underway again. The suspension of play was announced on the tournament’s official social media account at about 3:52 p.m. ET.
With the delay affecting the day’s action, attention now turns to when players will finally be able to return to the court.
“Play has suspended due to weather,” the Cincinnati Open account posted. “Please stay tuned for updates.”
But at 4:28 p.m. the tournament account announced that “Courts are being dried.” That announcement appeared to signal that matches wield resume soon, but no time was given at that point.
The AccuWeather forecast for Lindner Family Tennis Center showed thunderstorms coming back at around 5 p.m., but clear skies for the rest of the evening starting around 6 p.m.
“Rain is back again at the Cincinnati ATP & WTA 1000. No play for another hour or so (estimate),” wrote the edgeAI tennis account, also at about 3:52 p.m. The account then went on to list the affected matches.
- Arthur Fery vs Alex De Minaur
- Magdalena Frech vs Elena Rybakina
- Sorana Cirstea vs Anna Kalinskaya
- Diana Shnaider vs Maja Chwalinska
- Also all doubles matches.
As of 4:20 p.m. ET, almost a half-hour after the suspension was announced, no time had been announced for resumption of play.
The interruption extends a pattern that has dogged the tournament all weekend. Officials posted Sunday that play had been suspended due to weather, an announcement that came without a timetable for when the courts would reopen — and Monday’s stoppage has followed the same script, with no official duration attached to it yet.
Cincinnati Open Delay: How Long Could Stoppage Last
Recent history offers the best guide to how long fans might be waiting. Saturday’s delay ran roughly 90 minutes before players returned to the grounds, according to ATP Tour. Sunday’s stoppage moved faster, with one estimate placing that delay in the 30-minute range, according to a tennis account that was tracking the resumption in real time.
Monday’s session opened at 11 a.m. ET with a loaded order of play across five courts. Top-ranked Alexander Zverev was not scheduled to face Terence Atmane until after 7 p.m., a slot that put his match squarely in the window when storms were most likely to roll through. Iga Swiatek opened Stadium Court against Maria Sakkari, with Magdalena Frech vs. Elena Rybakina and Rafael Jodar vs. Alejandro Tabilo also lined up there, according to the official Cincinnati Open schedule published by ATP Tour.
The Grandstand card was just as loaded, with Alexander Blockx facing Flavio Cobolli and Arthur Fery meeting Alex de Minaur before Emma Navarro vs. Jessica Pegula and Tommy Paul vs. Adolfo Daniel Vallejo were set to follow later. Jiri Lehecka vs. Arthur Fils and Jakub Mensik vs. Rinky Hijikata rounded out a stacked Tony Trabert Stadium 3 card. Any of those matches caught mid-set when the delay hit were forced into the same holding pattern that defined Saturday and Sunday.
Sunday’s night session offered a preview of how quickly things can turn. Jaime Faria upset Ben Shelton in a match that carried through the weather disruptions, while Coco Gauff and Liudmila Samsonova had their own contest paused mid-set before players were sent back out once the rain let up. After the delay, Gauff came back from a set down to win the match. Monday’s slate arrived fresh off that chaos, with no guarantee the skies would cooperate any better this time around.
What the Forecast Says About Tonight and Tuesday
The immediate outlook doesn’t offer much comfort. A chance of showers with thunderstorms possible after 11 a.m. was in the National Weather Service’s forecast for Mason, Ohio, on Monday, with a high near 82 degrees and a 40 percent chance of precipitation.
Conditions are expected to calm considerably once the sun goes down. Monday night calls for partly cloudy skies and a low around 63 degrees, with north winds near 6 mph fading to calm by evening, per the National Weather Service.
Tuesday looks like the reprieve organizers have been waiting for. The National Weather Service projects mostly sunny skies with a high near 81 degrees and light northwest wind, while AccuWeather’s extended outlook shows similar improvement, calling for less humidity and just a 10 percent chance of rain.
Why is Cincinnati Open Tennis Delayed Today? When Will it Start Again?