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

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Zheng Qinwen, 2024 Olympics F (Getty)
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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

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, No.5
Jasmine Paolini
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and No.7 Zheng Qinwen debut in the hard-court summer among the tournament's Top 8 seeds, joined by defending champion
Coco Gauff
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(No.2),
Aryna Sabalenka
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(No.3), Jessica Pegula
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(No.6) and Jelena Ostapenko
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(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

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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

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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

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, while wild card
Caroline Wozniacki
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faces Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina
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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

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On the other side, two-time Cincinnati champion and No.14 seed Victoria Azarenka

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In other notable first-round action, No.11 seed Emma Navarro

View Profile , through to her first WTA 1000 semifinal in Toronto, will face Roland Garros semifinalist Mirra Andreeva
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, with the winner to play either 2016 champion Karolina Pliskova
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or Viktoriya Tomova
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. Vekic, the No.16 seed, will face former Top 10 player
Beatriz Haddad Maia
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, while 2023 Roland Garros finalist
Karolina Muchova
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and 2024 Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska
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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

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in the first round.

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