Carlos Alcaraz returns to the Cincinnati Open one year on from a memorable championship match here against Novak Djokovic, which he lost in a gruelling three hours and 49 minutes. This time, he has more experience in his back pocket.

The Spaniard brings with him to Mason priceless experience from the Paris Olympics, where he partnered Rafael Nadal in the men’s doubles. The pair lost in the quarter-finals to eventual silver medalists Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram of the United States.

“It was a great experience, talking with Rafa off the court, knowing each other much better off the court. It was a great experience, obviously, playing doubles together. It was great,” Alcaraz said during his press conference Sunday in Cincinnati. “It was something that I will never forget, for sure. I learned a lot talking to him on court, off the court as well. I think we played a great tennis in doubles, even if we are not used to playing doubles very often.

“A little bit disappointing at the end, because we thought that we could do it better, but in general, we were happy. And obviously talking about myself, I reached my dream, my dream came true, playing doubles alongside Rafa.”

Nadal has earned countless accolades in his career. The 38-year-old has spent 209 weeks at No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, won 22 major titles and 36 ATP Masters 1000 trophies. Alcaraz was able to pick his countryman’s brain in Paris to learn from all of his experiences. What advice from Nadal helped him the most?

“How to deal with some situations playing doubles. Sometimes when we were down, he was there in a positive way, talking to me like, ‘Well, right now they are going to feel [it] with the pressure. We have to just stay there, put some balls in, try to get them in trouble’,” Alcaraz said. “Some situations, some things that you probably don’t see, or is difficult to see, he sees very, very clear and off the court, how to prepare the difficult situations or the matches. It [was] a master class.”

Alcaraz claimed the silver medal in singles, losing the gold-medal match in two tie-breaks to Djokovic. The winner of Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year, Alcaraz is hungry to learn from that defeat to continue challenging for and winning the biggest tournaments.

In Cincinnati, the second seed can complete the full set of American Masters 1000 titles, having already triumphed at Indian Wells and Miami.

“I always want to be better. I always think that I could do it better. Obviously, I had a great summer: Roland Garros, Wimbledon, silver in the Olympics. Obviously, I wanted the gold medal,” Alcaraz said. “After the matches, if I win or I lose, I like to find the bad things that I did in the matches, try to be better, try to in the next match not make the same mistakes in the shots or dealing with some situations. And that’s what happened.

“That’s what I saw in the final in Paris, that I couldn’t deal with the situations as good as I wanted, and that’s what I was thinking after the match, just to be better, and probably being harder on myself.”

Winning in sport is tough, but when you get on a roll it can become a habit. In years gone by, winning became exactly that for Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter, Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal across the North American hard-court swing.

During their careers, those four greats all completed one of the ATP Tour’s unique accomplishments at the Cincinnati Open. Since the ATP Masters 1000 series began in 1990, they are the only players to have backed up a title run at the Omnium Banque National présenté par Rogers by claiming the trophy at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Ohio that same season.

Cracking the winning code consecutively in Canada and Cincinnati has proven tough even for some of the ATP Tour’s most iconic stars. Yet former World No. 1s Agassi (1995), Rafter (1998), Roddick (2003) and Nadal (2013) all dug deep win both hard-court events in the same season. All except Agassi also went on to win the US Open in the same year.

Ahead of the 2024 edition of the Cincinnati Open, which begins on Monday in Mason, Ohio, ATPTour.com looks back at the four champions who have tasted back-to-back Masters 1000 success in North America.

Andre Agassi – 1995
In 1995, Agassi arrived in Montreal seeking to consolidate his position as World No. 1 at the Omnium Banque National présenté par Rogers. Two weeks and 10 wins later, the American stood on centre court at the Lindner Family Tennis Center having become the first man to win the Canada-Cincinnati Masters 1000 double.

The American had already captured hard-court titles earlier that year at the Australian Open and in San Jose, Miami and Washington. The fact he prevailed from the Montreal and Cincinnati fields was therefore not a huge surprise, yet the way Agassi clinched his back-to-back Masters 1000 crowns was almost as impressive as the novel achievement itself.

The 25-year-old dropped just two sets across 10 matches in Montreal and Cincinnati, and he defeated Top 10 opponents in both finals. After notching his third victory of the year against World No. 2 Pete Sampras to successfully defend his title in Canada, Agassi brought some of his best tennis to his homeland with a dominant run in Cincinnati.

With a week between the events, Agassi arrived in Ohio rested and refreshed. His only moment of peril came when he was forced to recover from being bagelled in the second set of his second-round clash against former World No. 12 Alberto Berasategui. Agassi did so, and eventually overcome two-time defending champ and World No. 5 Michael Chang 7-5, 6-2 in the final.

Agassi notched another ATP Tour crown in New Haven before his 26-match winning streak came to and end against Sampras in the US Open final. Despite that disappointment in New York, he could look back on a stunning summer in which he had picked up his sixth and seventh Masters 1000 crowns, respectively, en route to securing a slice of ATP Tour history.

Patrick Rafter – 1998
Rafter climbed to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time in July 1999, famously holding the position for just one week. Rewind a year and it was his standout results in the 1998 North American summer that built the foundations for his rise to the top.

The way Rafter flipped the script within two of his tougher Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalries was key to his double triumph in North America. After notching just his second win in eight tour-level meetings against Richard Krajicek to become the first man in 10 years to win the Canadian Masters 1000 event without dropping a set, he breezed into the Cincinnati final for the loss of just one set. Awaiting the Australian was Pete Sampras, who had triumphed in the pair’s eight previous encounters.

Even if he was full of confidence from claiming his maiden Masters 1000 crown in Toronto, Rafter may have quickly felt in familiar territory against Sampras after the American charged to the first set for the loss of one game. Yet the calm and collected Australian retained his composure to battle back for a 1-6, 7-6(2) 6-4 victory and ensure he emulated Agassi’s historic ‘Summer Sweep’.

“Well, winning becomes a habit,” said Rafter, who beat Sampras again a month later en route to the title at the US Open, after his Cincinnati win. “You just go out and play and things work for you. Every decision you make comes off. But then, you know, you can lose it very quickly as well. At this stage, the decisions I made are working. You can ask Andre that. You can ask Pete that, he’ll probably say the same thing.”

Andy Roddick – 2003
An all-American final between two good friends had home fans gripped at the 2003 Cincinnati Open.

Enjoying the summer of his career until that point, the fast-rising 21-year-old Andy Roddick powered into the championship match in Ohio without losing a set. The World No. 7 deployed his huge serve and powerful all-around game with all the confidence of a man who had arrived in Ohio fresh from downing Roger Federer and David Nalbandian to clinch his maiden Masters 1000 title in Montreal.

On the other side of the net was Roddick’s long-time friend Mardy Fish, who had spent his junior days living with the Roddick family in Boca Raton, Florida, where the pair trained together. Although Roddick later acknowledged he found it tough competing against a good friend in such a big match, he eventually cut through the tension after saving two championship points to pull off a 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(4) triumph.

“It’s tough,” reflected Roddick after outlasting Fish across two hours and 29 minutes. “I wouldn’t have wanted this to end any other way, but definitely as he was walking off, I felt for him. I’d have no problem if I didn’t really know the guy or if I just said ‘Hi’ in passing sometimes, but to know someone pretty well and know what they’re thinking and what they’re going through, it sucked, I guess.”

Just as Rafter had in 1998, Roddick went on to win the US Open in September, defeating Nalbandian once again before he beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets to win the first and only major of his career.

Rafael Nadal – 2013
Nadal’s 2013 season was one of the greatest of his historic career. The Spaniard won 10 tour-level trophies — bettered only by the 11 he collected in 2005 — while he tallied a staggering 75-7 win-loss record.

However, when the Spaniard arrived in Montreal in 2013 he was aiming to bounce back from a disappointing first-round Wimbledon exit to Belgian Steve Darcis. Nadal cruised through his first three matches in Quebec and then met Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. Two months after their five-set epic at Roland Garros, Nadal once again beat the Serbian, this time 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(2). With his victory, Nadal recorded his first win against Djokovic on hard courts in three years and set himself up to down home favourite Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-2 in the final for his second Canadian Masters 1000 crown.

The following week in Cincinnati, Nadal set about ensuring that his Wimbledon disappointment quickly became an even more distant memory. He survived a three-set scare from then-22-year-old Grigor Dimitrov before he beat Federer 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals. It was the Spaniard’s third consecutive win against his great rival. Nadal then beat Tomas Berdych in the semi-finals and John Isner 7-6(8), 7-6(3) in the final to lift the trophy in Cincinnati for the first time.

“It means a lot, being able to win two straight titles, two Masters 1000 on hard, back to back, is just amazing for me,” said Nadal, who remains the most recent player to complete the ‘Summer Sweep’. “I never did something like this in all my career. So it was an emotional moment for so many different facts.”

Like Rafter and Roddick, Nadal went on to win the US Open in September, his 13th major crown and second at the US Open.

Rafael Nadal has yet to confirm whether the Olympic Games was his latest event contending for a major title, yet there are increasing rumours that he may be about to call time on his remarkable career.

Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz’s high-profile run in the men’s doubles at the Olympics came to an end with a 6-2, 6-4 loss to American fourth seeds Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram last week.

The 14-time French Open champion gave a lingering wave to all sides of Court Philippe Chatrier, but it seems very likely not to be just Roland Garros that does not see Nadal on court again.

Asked whether he would head to the United States, where events building up to the US Open are already underway, the 38-year-old said: “It looks like not but I’m going to let you know soon. For me now, I can’t give you a clear answer, I need some time. But for me it looks difficult.

“We’ll see if I keep playing the normal tour. But of course I will be supporting him from home and wishing him all the very best every single time. Even if I keep playing or not, I love tennis.

“If that’s the last time, it’s an unforgettable feeling and emotions. They give me the love and the support every single second that I have been on court. It’s super, super special to feel that in particular in this place.

“At this stage of my career, I play for feelings, I play for emotions more than for results.

“I won enough in my career, much more than what I ever dreamed. For me, it’s about enjoying different experiences, and that’s another lifetime experience, to share with Carlos, an amazing player who I think is going to be of course one of the best of the history of this sport.”

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Nadal backed up those comments by pulling out of the US Open and he has yet to confirm whether he will play in any more regular tour events in 2024.

The void on his schedule is fuelling rumours that his appearance at the Laver Cup may be his final bow as a professional player.

That would see him follow in the footsteps of his great friend and rival Roger Federer, who called time on his great career at the Laver Cup two years ago.

Federer has even hinted he may come out of retirement to play alongside Nadal in a doubles match at the Laver Cup, following the script that saw the duo team up for Federer’s final match as a professional player.

This year’s Laver Cup takes place at the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany from 20 until 22 September and former world No 1 Andy Roddick believes the event could be the perfect stage for Nadal to bow out.

“The Laver Cup could be a celebration. We’re all better when he’s around. Hopefully we’ll see him in the big finals again. I don’t know. It feels like this could be the end,” he said on the Served With Andy Roddick podcast.

“I’m certainly not like the greatest players of all time. I can’t figure it out, but I don’t know if he wants to compete for titles in Bastad. I don’t know if it’s his lane. We’ll see.

“We don’t know what he’ll do, we’re not in his inner circle, but I find it hard to believe that he’ll put in the effort and try to give Roland Garros another chance. But I’ve been wrong about him in the past and any analyst who has an opinion is just guessing.”

Rafael Nadal has officially announced his withdrawal from the 2024 U.S. Open, a decision that has shocked the tennis community. On Wednesday, August 7, the 22-time Grand Slam champion took to Instagram to share the news, citing his inability to compete at his highest level as the primary reason for stepping away from the tournament. The decision marks a significant moment in the career of the 38-year-old tennis legend, who has won the U.S. Open four times— in 2010, 2013, 2017, and 2019.

Nadal’s decision to skip the U.S. Open comes on the heels of a challenging experience at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where he represented Spain. Despite his career, the tournament proved difficult for Nadal, as he and his doubles partner, Carlos Alcaraz, were defeated in the quarterfinals by the Dutch duo Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof on July 30. Adding to his disappointment, Nadal also faced an early exit in the singles competition, losing in the second round to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, who won the gold medal on August 4.