ATP Winston Salem Tips: Player motivation the key ahead of the US Open

• Coric the only top 20 player in the field

• Korda the other co-favourite for the event

• Expect a random player out of quarter two

Big names rest up ahead of the US Open

Following the drama of the Cincinnati final last night, with Novak Djokovic pipping Carlos Alcaraz to the title, there's a switch to lower-profile ATP Tour action this week with no top 10 players choosing to participate in the Winston Salem warm-up tournament for the US Open.

Borna Coric, ranked 15, is the top seed in the event and the only top 20 player in the field.

Conditions at the Wake Forest University complex should be pretty average-paced for a hard court, with no significant deviation from mean figures for key metrics such as service points won, service hold percentage and aces per game, so we should get a pretty fair hard court event without being biased towards various player dynamics.

Player priorities varying this week

Last year, Adrian Mannarino lifted the trophy, continuing a fairly random list of winners including Ilya Ivashka in 2021, and recent finalists including Mikael Ymer, Laslo Djere, Damir Dzumhur and Benoit Paire.

We have to go back to 2012 to find a player winning back to back titles, and indeed a multiple title winner (John Isner).

I think that this tells us that players have varying priorities here for this tournament - some will be looking for some game-time to fine tune a few things ahead of a big couple of weeks in New York, while others may actually have more drive to go the whole way and win the title.

However, that does lead to the potential of players scuppering any chance of doing well over the next fortnight at the US Open, by being pretty fatigued ahead of the tournament.

Coric favourite against quarter opposition

Top seed Coric is vying for tournament favourite status with Sebastian Korda, around the 10.09/1 to 11.010/1 mark, while there are a plethora of players priced around the 17.016/1 to 30.029/1 region, where a lot of the implied odds for the tournament winner comes from in the outright market, which is still forming on the Exchange.

Coric is likely to face players such as Marcos Giron and Botic Van de Zandschulp on the way to getting out of his quarter, and should be a comfortable favourite against most in his bracket, including Dominic Thiem who continues to underwhelm.

Quarter two looking pretty weak

In Q2, Djere and the clay-courter Sebastian Baez are the main seeds and the entire bracket looks very low-quality indeed, with clay-courters, wild cards and qualifiers abounding. He might be a question mark fitness-wise, but if Quentin Halys is in good shape, he should have the tools to go a long way in this quarter at a big price.

Moving on to the third quarter, it's anticipated that Korda will progress, although he could be tested by Brandon Nakashima or Marton Fucsovics, or perhaps the young French prospect Arthur Fils who is still building up a statistical profile on the hard court.

But - this isn't far from as good a draw as Korda could have hoped for, and he looks well set for the latter stages assuming that he is motivated to do so.

Draper back to main tour action after injury issues

Finally, in Q4, Jiri Lehecka and Tallon Griekspoor top and tail the bracket, with Emil Ruusuvuori probably the biggest threat to the duo. It's also great to see Jack Draper back in main tour action, with the Brit facing Nuno Borges in his opener having barely featured in recent months following injury at the French Open.

It will be great to have the opportunity to assess Draper's level ahead of the US Open, which starts next Monday.

I'll be returning throughout the week with my thoughts on the contenders and the draw ahead of a big fortnight in New York, so keep an eye out for those previews as the week progresses.