Jannik Sinner withdraws from Cincinnati Open with knee injury as ATP takes another hit

MONTREAL — Jannik Sinner has withdrawn from the Cincinnati Open with a right knee injury, he announced Sunday, meaning the world No. 1 will miss both of the prestigious hard court tune-up tournaments heading into the U.S. Open. The 24-year-old also skipped the Canadian Open, which is underway in Montreal this week, to prioritize his health.

“After consulting with my doctors and my team, I have to announce that I need to withdraw from the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati,” Sinner’s statement read. “My right knee has been bothering me and even though we have been working hard with my medical team, I have to accept that I’m not ready to compete yet.”

Sinner last played at Wimbledon, where he hoisted his fifth Grand Slam trophy, and showed no signs of injury during his grass-court run. But he joins a mounting — and increasingly troubling for the sport — list of banged-up players in men’s tennis that’s left some of the ATP’s top-tier tournaments without its biggest stars.

Carlos Alcaraz is still rehabbing a right wrist injury and hasn’t played since April, and neither he, Sinner nor Novak Djokovic played at the Canadian Open this week. The event is a Masters 1000 tournament, which is the level just below a Grand Slam and is considered among the most prestigious events on the ATP Tour, aside from the year-end Finals.

Beyond Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic, whose absence was no surprise as the 39-year-old mostly saves his body to compete in Grand Slams these days, the draw at the Canadian Open has been rife with upsets and injuries to top-ranked players.

No. 2 Felix Auger-Aliassime, the tournament’s hometown hero and biggest draw, pulled out with a back injury before his first-round match. Taylor Fritz lost in the second round, with murmurs of a foot issue trickling out after the match. Frances Tiafoe retired from his third-round match and later posted on social media that he had a cyst removed from his hand. Jack Draper was in tears during his first-round loss, his latest attempt to return to the court while dealing with bone bruising in his left elbow.

Those were just the injury-related losses. Plain-old upsets also tore through the draw, and by the middle of last week, the Canadian Open had become the first Masters 1000 tournament since 1991 in which no top-five players reached the third round.

Players tend to feel more urgency in Cincinnati than Montreal because of its proximity to the U.S. Open, which may curb some upsets. But nevertheless, men’s tennis is facing yet another two-week Masters 1000 tournament without its biggest names and the injury bug running rampant.