Cincinnati | Putintseva downs Gauff, Sabalenka advances

Defending champion Coco Gauff fell to the ever-dangerous Yulia Putintseva in her opening match on the Cincinnati Open on Thursday, becoming a member of an array of seeds on the sidelines, together with Elena Rybakina, Jelena Ostapenko and Daria Kasatkina, whereas Aryna Sabalenka and Jasmine Paolini made it safely into the Final 16.

I feel it was an unsightly match from the each of us, it clearly wasn’t the most effective tennis. Clearly our service video games weren’t going nicely, too many unforced errors. I used to be simply fortunate that, as we speak, I acquired the nice finish of the stick. I am pleased with the way in which I fought. It wasn’t the prettiest match, however I accepted it, and I simply tried to take pleasure in that second, though a whole lot of errors had been coming. Leylah Fernandez

Putintseva, who received Birmingham earlier this summer season, received the final 4 video games to remove 2nd-seeded Gauff, 6-4 2-6 6-4, her thirteenth profession High 10 win.

Enjoying this week for the primary time since reaching the 4th spherical of Wimbledon, the place she shocked World No 1 Iga Swiatek on the way in which, Putintseva beat Nice Britain’s Harriet Dart from a set behind within the opening spherical earlier than upsetting Gauff from 2-4 down within the closing set.

Gauff turned the youngest Cincinnati champion final 12 months, aged 19, forward of successful the US Open just a few weeks later, however, this time spherical, after a bye within the 1st-round, the World No 2 blew her lead within the decider and misplaced to Putintseva for the primary time in 4 profession conferences.

The Kazakh capitalised on greater than 50 unforced errors from an erratic Gauff, who coughed up 9 double-faults within the course of, 2 coming within the seventh recreation of the ultimate set to present the annoyed Putintseva an opportunity to  reset, and get again into the match.

“I feel the extent of the sport was excessive, particularly for these situations – the courts are lightning quick, so I’m fairly glad to get via,” Putintseva stated afterwards. “The entire match was a curler coaster.

“At this level, I used to be considering I broke her a few instances and it was not one thing particular to interrupt somebody once more. She hit two double-faults, and I hit two good returns. She mis-hit it, the sport modified instantly.

“On these sort of courts, it’s a must to keep actually targeted, as a result of the sport can change shortly.”

Later, Gauff instructed the WTA in an unique interview that was made accessible to the media afterwards: “It was not the most effective match for me. She [Putintseva] mixes up the ball. She has drop-shots, slice. She’s, sort of, somebody that makes you earn the match.”

Gauff begins one other title defence subsequent week on the US Open in New York.

“I really feel, like, I’ve to work on my consistency, general,” Gauff added. “I’m making a whole lot of unforced errors.”

Putintseva will face Washington DC champion Paula Badosa within the Spherical of 16, the Spaniard having eased previous thirteenth seed Anna Kalinskaya from Russia, 6-3 6-2, earlier within the day.

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Former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez additionally got here from behind to upset No 4 seed Elena Rybakina, 3-6 7-6(3) 6-4, after saving 2 match factors within the second set.

Rybakina was enjoying her first match since falling within the Wimbledon semi-finals to eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova.

Acute bronchitis then compelled the Kazakh to withdraw from each the Paris Olympic Video games and final week’s WTA 1000 occasion in Toronto, and the rust confirmed all through, notably along with her 17 double-faults, two of which got here on each of her match factors as she served for the match at 6-5 within the second set.

“I feel it was an unsightly match from the each of us, it clearly wasn’t the most effective tennis,” Fernandez stated later. “Clearly our service video games weren’t going nicely, too many unforced errors. I used to be simply fortunate that, as we speak, I acquired the nice finish of the stick.

“I’m pleased with the way in which I fought. It wasn’t the prettiest match, however I accepted it, and I simply tried to take pleasure in that second, though a whole lot of errors had been coming.”

Fernandez is having fun with a resurgent season, and returned to the High 30 in June after an absence of almost 2 years.

The 21-year-old Canadian was coming off a disappointing 2nd-round loss to Ashlyn Krueger in her dwelling occasion of Toronto final week, and had wanted to return from a set and a break down to flee China’s Yuan Yue in her Cincinnati opener, however she demonstrated within the first recreation that she was wanting to tackle the problem of Rybakina, smacking 2 winners to interrupt instantly.

Each struggled for consistency all through, and whereas Fernandez fired 26 winners, she additionally made 27 unforced errors, together with 13 double-faults of her personal.

Within the second set, these appeared to be her undoing when she threw in two in a row to drop serve at 5-3, however after Rybakina had squandered her 2 match factors, Fernandez pounced with 2 clear winners to interrupt again, after which dominated the following tiebreak.

Within the decider, Rybakina managed to serve her means out of bother in her first service recreation, and escaped triple break level serving at 2-3, however Fernandez, who didn’t face a break level within the set, remained undaunted and broke to like at her subsequent probability for 4-3.

“I simply tried to make it a dogfight, simply attempt to play a little bit little bit of road tennis, put an unsightly ball again in,” she stated. “We now have to maintain it easy. I’m glad that I discovered a option to get to that time. Slowly however absolutely, my confidence and my recreation was rising, in order that helped rather a lot.”

Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina by no means discovered her groove, and her 17 double-faults had been a part of a complete of fifty unforced errors as she continuously missed on routine rally balls, whereas she received simply 35% of the factors behind her second serve.

The Kazakh, although, nonetheless managed to fireplace 41 winners, together with 20 aces, and took 6 out of her 7 break level probabilities.

Fernandez strikes on to a primary encounter with the in-form Diana Shnaider, the 20-year-old Russian doubles Olympic silver medallist, who made the Toronto semi-finals final week, and continued in Cincinnati with a 7-5 6-0 win over American qualifier Krueger.

After trailing by an early break, Shnaider recovered to win 9 video games in a row, and has now received 19 of her final 22 singles matches.

Third-seeded Aryna Sabalenka comfortably eased her well past Elisabetta Cocciaretto in straight units on Thursday on the Lindner Household Tennis Heart in Mason, Ohio.

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No 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka fired 24 winners, together with 5 aces, to overpower Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 6-3 6-4, saving all 3 break factors she confronted to notch up her thirty fifth match win of 2024.

Having missed Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics with a shoulder harm, the Belarusian has now received 6 of seven opening matches on the American Midwest venue within the ATP and WTA tune-up for the US Open.

Sabalenka superior as rain threatened play after 3 days of summer season sunshine, ending on a third match level for her fifteenth Cincinnati victory.

“Each week is a brand new event. You must have a brief reminiscence. I hold working onerous; hold bettering,” Sabalenka stated. “I’m attempting to determine what else I’ve to do to get into the finals right here.”

Cocciaretto was handled for a left hip drawback halfway via the second set, and was seen by the coach for a thigh tape adjustment at changeovers.

There have been moments of frustration when the occasional return sailed lengthy, however the hard-hitting 26-year-old Belarusian shook off an unforced error within the closing recreation, rattling off back-to-back aces to advance.

“I’m proud of my stage within the robust moments,” she stated. “Elisabetta is a tough opponent. She fought to the final level.”

Sabalenka will subsequent face Elina Svitolina, after the Ukrainian superior, 6-4 6-1, over fortunate loser Jessica Bouzas Maneiro from Spain.

The Belarusian leads their head-to-head 3-1, however she needed to save 3 match factors to win their most up-to-date encounter, 4-6 6-1 7-6(7), within the Third-round of Rome in Could.

Qualifier Taylor Townsend continued her high quality run with an upset win over Ninth-seeded Daria Kasatkina on the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati

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Elina Avanesyan, enjoying underneath the Armenian flag for the primary time, scored a 2-6 6-2 6-2 upset of No 8 seed Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia, reversing the results of their 2023 US Open encounter, and she or he has now received 6 of the 9 matches she has contested towards High 20 opposition.

No 10 seed Liudmila Samsonova saved 3 set factors within the first set, successful it on an prolonged tiebreak, then rolled via the second towards Poland’s Magda Linette to win 7-6(10) 6-1 in an hour and 50 minutes.

In the meantime, Taylor Townsend stored up her sturdy summer season by upsetting one other Russian, Ninth-seeded Daria Kasatkina, 6-1 2-6 6-1, with an excellent show of left-hander shot-making.

The American qualifier has made it into her third consecutive Spherical of 16 on the North American onerous courtroom swing, and can face both Toronto champion Jessica Pegula, the sixth seed, or final 12 months’s Cincinnati runner-up Karolina Muchova for a spot in her second straight WTA 1000 quarter-final.

No 5 seed Jasmine Paolini from Italy and Russian Mirra Andreeva additionally will characteristic within the Spherical of 16, in a rematch of their Roland Garros semi-final.

Paolini defeated Anastasia Potapova, 7-6(2) 6-3, whereas Andreeva moved previous 2016 champion Karolina Pliskova, 6-2 6-3.

The Cincinnati Open major present courtroom on the Lindner Household Tennis Heart in Mason, Ohio.

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Within the doubles, Britain’s Harriet Dart and her Australian associate, Ellen Perez, pulled off the upset of the 2nd-round once they took out Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei & Elise Mertens from Belgium, the No 2 seeds, 6-3 7-5.

Dart & Perez saved 2 set factors on Hseih & Mertens’ serve within the second set earlier than happening to say the Brits’ finest doubles win of the season.

For a spot within the quarter-finals, they’ll play fellow Brit Olivia Nicholls & Tereza Mihalikova from Slovakia, after they knocked out Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok & Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia, the fifth seeds, 6-4 7-5.