The 2008 Cincinnati Masters (also known as the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open for sponsorship reasons) was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 107th edition of the Cincinnati Masters, and was part of the ATP Masters Series of the 2008 ATP Tour, and of the Tier III Series of the 2008 WTA Tour. Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, near Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, with the men playing from July 26 through August 3, 2008, and the women from August 9 through August 17, 2008.
The men's field was led by World No. 1, French Open and Wimbledon runner-up and Cincinnati Masters defending champion Roger Federer, ATP No. 2, French Open, Wimbledon and Canada Masters winner Rafael Nadal, and Australian Open titlist Novak Djokovic. Other top seeded players were ATP No. 4, Pörtschach and Warsaw titlist Nikolay Davydenko, Valencia and s'Hertogenbosch winner David Ferrer, Andy Roddick, James Blake and Andy Murray.
The women's draw featured Paris, Eastbourne and Montreal semifinalist, Standford finalist Marion Bartoli, Eastbourne runner-up and Wimbledon quarterfinalist Nadia Petrova, and Estoril, Barcelona winner Maria Kirilenko. Also competing were Strasbourg finalist, French Open and Wimbledon mixed doubles runner-up Katarina Srebotnik, Amelia Island quarterfinalist Amélie Mauresmo, Aleksandra Wozniak, Ekaterina Makarova and Tamira Paszek.
Famous quotes containing the words western, southern, financial, group, masters, women and/or open:
“Westron wind, when will thou blow?
The small rain down can rain.
Christ, that my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again.”
—Unknown. Western Wind (l. 1–4)
“Come on, untie me or I’m gonna call your parents.”
—Terry Southern (b. 1924)
“Creditor. One of a tribe of savages dwelling beyond the Financial Straits and dreaded for their desolating incursions.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“The poet who speaks out of the deepest instincts of man will be heard. The poet who creates a myth beyond the power of man to realize is gagged at the peril of the group that binds him. He is the true revolutionary: he builds a new world.”
—Babette Deutsch (1895–1982)
“Disciples be damned. It’s not interesting. It’s only the masters that matter. Those who create.”
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
“Old women snore violently. They are like bodies into which bizarre animals have crept at night; the animals are vicious, bawdy, noisy. How they snore! There is no shame to their snoring. Old women turn into old men.”
—Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)