Examining the Cincinnati success stories of Johnson, Coric, Murray and Kerber

Every four years, one tournament must suffer an Olympian letdown. In 2012, it was the Rogers Cup; after London’s Summer Games, Toronto and Montreal were littered with pullouts, early exits and mysterious knee injuries. This year that tournament was supposed to be the Western & Southern Open. As of Monday, Cincinnati seemed destined to suffer from a desperate lack of star power: Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams and Roger Federer had all withdrawn, and it was assumed that Andy Murray, Angelique Kerber, Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori—each of whom had labored hard in service to their countries in Rio—would quickly follow them out the door and onto a flight to New York.

That’s not exactly how it has worked out. This week, Cincy has emerged from the shadows of Rio with its own set of storylines. It’s hard now to believe that the men’s gold-medal match between Murray and Juan Martin del Potro was just five days ago. Here’s a look at the developments we’ve seen since then, and the questions they raise about four players in particular as they head into the U.S. Open.

Is Steve Johnson ready for his close-up?

“It’s great for me,” Johnson told ESPN on Thursday.

Johnson had just recorded one of the biggest wins of his career, over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga; but he wasn’t talking about that. He had also just reached his first quarterfinal at a Masters event, at age 26; but he wasn’t talking about that, either.

What was great for Johnson? Becoming the No. 1-ranked U.S. male player for the first time. With his recent run of strong play, which also included a quarterfinal run in Rio, Johnson—who didn’t even join the tour full time until he was 22—will end John Isner’s three-year run in that position. He’ll also join a list of former U.S. No. 1s that includes Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, Pancho Gonzalez and half a dozen other legendary names.

Can Johnson measure up to that tradition? Can he handle the heightened scrutiny that’s sure to come at the Open and beyond? It hasn’t been easy for his immediate predecessors: Isner hit his head on the Top 10 ceiling, while Mardy Fish admitted that he wasn’t prepared to be the country’s standard-bearer. On Friday, Johnson got a taste of what life is like closer to the top in his straight-set loss to Grigor Dimitrov. After fighting hard and saving set points in the first-set tiebreaker, Johnson fired a big first serve at 8-9, only to see it come back even harder and handcuff him. It won’t get easier from here for Stevie.

Is Angelique Kerber ready to be—dare we say it?—No. 1 in the world?

There has never been a bigger status gap between No. 1 and No. 2 than there has been over the last three or four years on the WTA tour. During that time, it has been “Serena Williams and everyone else.” Coming in first in the “everyone else” category has earned you very little in terms of important victories.

But this year Kerber has earned herself an Australian Open title, as well as an Olympic silver medal and a Wimbledon runner-up plate. Now, with her three-set win over Carla Suarez Navarro on Friday, she’s two matches away from closing the gap on Serena completely and taking the top ranking that she has held for the last 183 weeks. As the 28-year-old Kerber said this week, “It’s amazing what’s happened in the last few months—it’s just incredible.”

Most incredible, or at least most impressive, of all may be Kerber’s performance this week in Cincy. After losing the gold-medal match in Rio on Saturday, no one would have been surprised if she had never made it to Ohio at all, or if she had beaten a quick retreat once she got there. But if Kerber has learned anything in her 10th year on tour, it’s that there’s no reason for her to fear the “incredible.”

Is Borna Coric back?

“Back,” of course, would hardly be the appropriate word to describe a 19-year-old tennis player who has only been a pro since 2013. But that’s the price you pay for beating Rafael Nadal when you’re 17; the earlier you’re on the radar screen, the earlier you begin to seem like a tour fixture, and even a veteran.

And if you spend half of your season losing in the first round at the Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome, Wimbledon and the Olympics, you might even begin to look a little over the hill, especially when a number of your peers are rising in the rankings. But since Wimbledon, Coric has reminded us that he’s still a vital part of the #NextGen equation: He beat Jack Sock in a fifth rubber to clinch Croatia’s quarterfinal Davis Cup win over the U.S., and this week he beat Nick Kyrgios and Nadal back to back before retiring with a knee injury against Marin Cilic on Friday. Coric doesn’t have the weapons of Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem or Nick Kyrgios, but he may be the best competitor of them all. Hopefully he’ll be physically ready to keep competing at the Open.

Is Andy Murray ready for the Novak test?

After his valiant gold-medal effort in Rio, Murray was the last guy that many of us expected to see in Cincinnati at the end of the week. But whether he actually wants to be there or not, Murray can’t seem to help himself from winning tennis matches these days. Coming in, he had won 33 of his last 34, and he continued that streak with two easy victories in Cincy. Not long ago, the idea would have sounded far-fetched, but is the year-end No. 1 ranking on Murray’s mind? He’s 1,800 points behind Novak Djokovic, who isn’t defending his runner-up points this week, in the race to London.

Whatever happens in Cincy this weekend, and wherever he stands in that race, the test for the new-and-improved Murray will come in his next meeting with Djokovic. The question then will be: Can the confidence Murray has gained by winning lots of matches over players he normally beats translate into more confidence against a player he normally doesn’t beat? The fact that the question can even be asked shows how far Murray has come in the last four months.