Sabalenka, Shelton, Tiafoe headline this year’s D.C. Open player field

As the end of Wimbledon draws near, the hard-court tennis season is ready to ramp up, and the D.C. Open has released the initial list of players in this year’s main draw.

The ATP and WTA fields, set to begin play July 29 at the Fitzgerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, boast a combined five Grand Slam champions, nine top 20 players, and three former world No. 1s.

The collection of women is led by two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who is making her first Washington appearance in seven years. D.C. will be the world No. 3’s first action in more than month after withdrawing ahead of Wimbledon with a shoulder injury.

Joining Sabalenka, seven of the WTA’s top 20 will compete in Washington,  including No. 10 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, No 12 Daria Kasatkina of Russia, No. 13 Madison Keys of the U.S, and No. 15 and 2022 D.C. champion Liudmila Samsonova of Russia. 

Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa of Spain and 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Radacanu of Great Britain have earned wild cards for Washington after round-of-16 appearances at Wimbledon.

Defending women’s champion Coco Gauff will not return to defend her title, as she, along with former Washington winner Jessica Pegula and many of the world’s other top players, will compete in the Summer Olympics in Paris.

The Olympic tournament (July 26-Aug 11) takes place at Roland-Garros concurrently with the D.C. Open, forcing players to weigh returning to a tricky, early-season surface — clay — or making preparations instead for the final stretch of the season on hard courts.

Frances Tiafoe, for one, won’t be making the switch, with the Hyattsville native opting to forego the Paris Games for his home tournament and be better prepared heading into next month’s U.S. Open. 

The world No. 29 has struggled though most of 2024, but might have reached a turning point in a five-set, third-round loss at Wimbledon to world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz that saw him play some of his best tennis of the year. Tiafoe makes his eighth D.C. Open appearance after losing in last year’s quarterfinals to eventual champion Dan Evans.

Joining Tiafoe in the ATP field are fellow Americans Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda, and MacKenzie McDonald. Shelton, currently No. 14 in the world, knocked off Tiafoe in last year’s U.S. Open quarterfinals before falling to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

Bulgarian Gregor Dimitrov (No. 10) is currently the only ATP top 10 player committed to playing in Washington. Russian Andrey Rublev (No. 6) is the only one of the nine men ahead of Dimitrov in the rankings that has not committed to playing in the Olympics.

The D.C. Open, now in its 55th year, is the only combined 500 level event between the ATP and WTA in the world, and the last three tournaments all set attendance records and featured sold-out sessions throughout the week.