Cincy Diary: On the Shelton show, Paolini's name for the ice towel, and Sinner's bagel

MASON, Ohio—From above, the stadium court at the Cincinnati Open was a picture of summer in motion on Thursday morning. Spectators whipped fans in front of their faces to try to stave off the oppressive heat. Cars and trucks barreled past on Route 71 outside the grounds, hopefully vacation bound. Across the highway, roller-coaster cars at the nearby amusement park slowly climbed into the sky, and quickly fell back to earth. Maybe most noticeable was the sea of yellow neon around the arena. Those were the cooling towels that the tournament handed out to everyone who came through the gates, and just about everyone was happy to put them to use.

“It’s gonna be a warm one,” a photographer from the Cincinnati area said in the press room, to no one in particular. Coming from a guy who spends his Augusts in this part of the country, I assumed that this was going to seem like a massive understatement to me, and that sweat would be coming out my shoes by late afternoon.

It was indeed a warm one, which may have contributed to the lack of competitive matches in the stadium. Here are a few snapshots of how a rain-free Day 9 played out.

“I was just, like, ‘Bro, why did I do this?’”

I wrote about Coco Gauff’s round of 16 win earlier. But the Coco experience is always about more than just the match; it’s also about the interviews she does afterwards—especially, of course, after she wins. She didn’t disappoint on Thursday.

In her press conference, she talked about her recent trip to a Cincinnati Reds game, and her family history with baseball.

“My grandfather founded a Little League in Delray [Fla.], and it’s still running to this day, and I volunteered there. I would sit and, you know, did a little score sheet. So I know the game very well.”

That said, her interest in the (former) national pastime has its limits.

“I’m definitely someone who prefers to watch baseball in person than on TV. It can be boring, not gonna lie.”

On Tennis Channel, Coco said she also went to a horror movie, Weapons, by herself, because she needed a break from her team.

“Sometimes I prefer to be by myself than with them,” she said with a laugh.

But she may have regretted her independence this time. After the “scary” movie, walking through the empty parking lot and traveling on the empty nighttime roads—“Nobody drives after, like, 10 o’clock in Ohio”—felt creepy.

“I was just like, ‘Bro, why did I do this?’”

With Coco, there’s always a bit of wisdom to go with the laughs. She talked about how she has come to accept that, with the season as long as it is, she’ll have good stretches and bad stretches, and she wishes fans would accept that, too.

“I think sometimes tennis fans want us to win, like every week, but we’re playing 11 months. It’s not that easy,” she said. “It’s completely normal, I think, for maybe a player to have a good three four weeks, and then maybe not have as well of a good three or three four weeks, just because the way our season is built.”

“Every changeover, I take the ice sausage”

Jasmine Paolini’s 6-1, 6-2 win over Barbora Krejcikova was not memorable. Krejcikova was way off from the start, got treatment for her foot, and faded quickly. But leave it to Paolini to find something funny to say about it. Asked afterward how she handled the heat, she said, “Every changeover, I take the ice sausage,” referring to the towels the players drape over their shoulders. It was enough to crack herself up, anyway.

She kept smiling as she was asked about playing Gauff next. Paolini won their last two matches, both on clay, but when they met in Cincy in 2023, Coco won easily.

“A couple years ago I won five games, so I hope to do better,” Paolini said, still laughing.

When she hit the customary three balls into the stands after her win, she still had the ice sausage over her neck.

“The oven timer is ringing”

That’s what commentator Robbie Koenig said as Jannik Sinner closed in on a 6-0 first set against Felix Auger-Aliassime. A minute or so later, Sinner closed it out and handed FAA his first bagel since 2022.

The Canadian came in with a 2-0 record against the Italian, but both of those matches were in 2022, when the two of them were roughly on the same level. That, obviously, is no longer the case. Sinner is No. 1, Auger Aliassime is No. 28. But even that discrepancy couldn’t explain why this match was so one-sided. Sinner won the first six games, lost the next two, then won six more in a row.

“I felt like I was returning very, very well today,” Sinner said. “I think that was my key point, which also gave me the confidence to serve well.”

Auger-Aliassime, by contrast, couldn’t buy a backhand, or a drop shot, or even a winner—it took him 40 minutes to hit one past Sinner.

“What worries me about Felix is the size of the misses we see from him,” Koenig said.

For Sinner, there doesn’t seem to be a reason to worry right now. He’s into the semis, where he’ll play either Holger Rune or Terence Atmane.

“Today I felt great on the court, I think we saw that.”

“It’s one of my favorite courts, so tight and packed”

Of all the tennis arenas around the world, the Grandstand in Cincy may have the best introductions. As the players’ names are announced, and the cheers from the crowd go up, they jog briskly down a small set of concrete steps that lead from the area outside the court straight down to the playing surface.

Today those cheers were as loud as they’ve been all tournament, because America’s player of the moment, Ben Shelton, was in action. The near-capacity crowd chanted for him and urged him on all through his fourth-round match with Jiri Lehecka. In classic American fan style, they talked to him like he was family and played with his name freely.

“Come on Ben,” “You got this Benny,” “One more Benny”

Benny did have this. At 6-foot-4, he had an immediate presence in the stadium, and his live arm had people oohing and aahing in warm up. Shelton’s forehand in particular is a smoother and more explosive shot in person than it seems to be on TV.

With Ben Shelton comes his father, Bryan, who was in his usual spot in the front row, giving his son whatever support he needed. The recently-loosened on-court coaching rules allow for regular chatter, and the Sheltons have taken the next step and turned his matches into running conversations, not unlike a practice session or a college match, where coaches often walk around the court talking with their players. When Shelton hit a poor volley today, he looked at his dad and shadowed the stroke the way it should have been hit. It’s a different, and less lonely, approach to tennis than we’ve known in the past.

And effective, it seems. Shelton won his ninth straight match on Thursday, and will play Alexander Zverev in the quarters on Friday night. The crowds here will be ready.