Mackenzie McDonald will play the doubles final in Cincinnati on Monday at 1 p.m., followed by a singles match in Winston-Salem at 8:30 p.m. It’s a quite crazy schedule. If he can complete his doubles match in an hour, he will have fewer than seven hours to get to Winston-Salem. It takes 90 minutes by plane and over seven hours by car to get from Cincinnati in Ohio to Winston-Salem in North Carolina.
It might also depend on how frequent the flights are or if they’re fully booked already. And if that all works out–then he has to hope there’s no delays. That said, McDonald might try to find a way to travel privately–helicopter is the fastest option, weather permitting. Ultimately, however, the most likely outcome is that McDonald will be forced to withdraw from Winston-Salem. If he does make it and plays, it’s hard to imagine that he’ll be at his freshest and will be facing a difficult opponent in Corentin Moutet.
It’s safe to say the American probably didn’t expect to be in the doubles finals in Cincinnatti, but it’s been a fantastic doubles run for him and his partner, Alex Michelsen, who is also playing in Winston-Salem. Fortunately for Michelsen, his match is on Tuesday. The duo defeated the top-ranked doubles team and the third seeds en route to the final, where they will face fourth seeds Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo.
All of this can trace itself back to the Olympics. Last week’s Canada Masters started a few days later than usual to let top players travel from Paris to North America, which meant that Cincinnati started last Monday and ends today (Monday, August 19th), rather than its usual Sunday finish.
Mackenzie McDonald had a good North American hard-court swing last year. It helped him to reach a career-high ranking of 37. Currently, he is outside the Top 100 and needs points after being injured during the first part of the season. It would be a big blow for him if he had to withdraw from Winston-Salem. It will be interesting to see if the tournament will push the match back to Tuesday to try to accommodate McDonald.
Main photo credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports:
