Week In Preview: Daniil Medvedev, Naomi Osaka return to hard-court action

WATCH: The Break talks Coco Gauff, Sofia Kenin and Citi Open preview news

As August begins, the event levels start to rise. This week, we’ll see our first 500s of the post-Wimbledon season: On the WTA side, there’s the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose; on the ATP side, there’s the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.

Each has drawn its share of quality players and well-known names, including Naomi Osaka, Elena Rybakina and Ons Jabeur among the women, and Andrey Rublev, Nick Kyrgios and Taylor Fritz among the men.

But it’s a smaller tournament, the 250-level event in Los Cabos, that may feature the most intriguing debut: That’s where ATP No. 1 Daniil Medvedev will make his first appearance since being banned from the All England Club.

Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic (WTA)

• San Jose, Calif.
• $757,900; WTA 500
• Hard court
• Draw is here

Click for San Jose tickets at TicketSmarter

Seven of the WTA’s Top 12 are present and accounted for in San Jose: Maria Sakkari, Paula Badosa, Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Daria Kasatkina. That’s a pretty good haul for the first week of the women’s summer hard-court swing. Despite their high rankings, more than a few of these players, including Sakkari, Badosa and Sabalenka, could use a good result right now. Only Jabeur, who made the final at Wimbledon, and Gauff, who made the final at Roland Garros, had much success at the last two Slams.

That includes Sabalenka, of course, who wasn’t allowed to play Wimbledon. That was unfortunate in itself, but the enforced break also came just after she made her second final of the season at the Libema Open. Sabalenka also reached the semifinals at the US Open last year, and will want to get ready to defend those points at the end of the month.

The San Jose draw includes three unseeded Grand Slam champions: Naomi Osaka, Bianca Andreescu and 2022 Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina. Each has an interesting first-round match: Andreescu will start against Shelby Rogers, Osaka will face fast-rising Chinese teenager Qinwen Zheng, and Rybakina will play Kasatkina.

Citi Open (ATP)

• Washington, D.C.
• $2,108,110; ATP 500
• Hard court
• Draw is here

The Citi Open offers 500 ranking points to the winner and more than $2 million to its 48-player field. What it doesn’t have, somewhat oddly, is a Top 5 player. The No. 1 seed is eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev, followed by Hubert Hurkacz, Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka.

But if this draw isn’t stocked with Grand Slam champions, it does have its share of crowd-pleasers. That starts with unseeded Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios, and continues with Americans like Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Maxime Cressy, Sebastian Korda, Jenson Brooksby and last year’s runner-up, Mackenzie McDonald.

Entertaining shotmakers Alex de Minaur and Denis Shapovalov also feature, as well as Danish upstart Holger Rune and old-guard favorites Grigor Dimitrov and Andy Murray—who did not need a wild card to get into this draw.

First-round matches to watch:

• Brooksby vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• Murray vs. Mikael Ymer
• David Goffin vs. Jack Sock

Potential second-round match to watch: Kyrgios vs. Paul

Abierto de Tenis Mifel (ATP)

• Los Cabos, Mexico
• $920,625; ATP 250
• Hard court
• Draw is here

The Citi Open has the bigger purse and the better draw, but Los Cabos has the higher-ranked top seed: World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev, who will take the court for the first time since his quarterfinal loss to Roberto Bautista Agut at the Mallorca Open, the week before Wimbledon.

Medvedev loves this time of year. Since 2019, he has won titles in Cincinnati, Toronto and New York. To add Los Cabos to that list, he’ll need to prevail over a sneaky-good field. Felix Auger-Aliassime, Cameron Norrie, Miomir Kecmanovic and Brandon Nakashima are seeded two through six.

Citi Open (WTA)

• Washington, D.C.
• $251,750; WTA 250
• Hard court
• Draw is here

The Citi Open’s women’s draw is traditionally a lower-key affair than the men’s. The tournament is a 250 rather than a 500, and offers $1.8 million less in prize money. But there are some big names of note here, including the top four seeds, Jessica Pegula, Emma Raducanu, Simona Halep and Victoria Azarenka. Among the unseeded players are three major champions from the U.S.: Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens and Sofia Kenin.

First-round matches to watch:

• Pegula vs. D.C. native Hailey Baptiste
• V. Williams vs. Rebecca Marino
• Stephens vs. Ajla Tomljanovic
• Azarenka vs. Dayana Yastremska
• Kenin vs. Camila Osorio

Kenin, a former U.S. No. 1 now ranked No. 419, will be looking for her first win since the opening week of the season in Adelaide.