Gauff, Pegula kickstart Cincinnati campaigns with wins

Cincinnati, Aug 11 (IANS) No. 2-seeded Coco Gauff mastered herself and opponent Wang Xinyu with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in 70 minutes to reach the third round at the Cincinnati Masters.

Gauff has now won her sixth opening match in eight WTA 1000s this year.

She’ll meet No. 32 Dayana Yastremska, a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 winner over Viktoriya Tomova, on Tuesday. Gauff has beaten Yastremska three of four times.

Gauff is one of eight Americans in the WTA Rankings Top 50 and the fifth to advance to the third round. Saturday saw No. 5 Amada Anisimova, No. 6 Madison Keys and wild card Taylor Townsend get through. On Sunday, Gauff was joined by another 21-year-old, Ashlyn Krueger, who was a 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 winner over Anastasija Sevastova, WTA reports.

Later, No. 4 Jessica Pegula equalled her former doubles partner with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Kimberly Birrell. Next for Pegula is No. 31 Magda Linette, who beat Rebecca Sramkova 7-6 (4), 6-0.

Only Aryna Sabalenka (47) and Iga Swiatek (44) have won more matches this year at the WTA level than Pegula’s 37.

No. 8 seed Emma Navarro fell to qualifier Ella Seidel 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. Seidel, a 20-year-old German ranked No. 124, gets the winner of the later match between Americans Caty McNally and McCartney Kessler.

Earleir, No. 7 Jasmine Paolini advanced in two fluctuating tiebreak sets, 7-6(2), 7-6(5) over Maria Sakkari. However, No. 17 Belinda Bencic fell 6-4, 7-6(0) to Veronika Kudermetova in the 11th edition of their rivalry.

Meanwhile, No. 3 Iga Swiatek and No. 23 Jelena Ostapenko both advanced via walkover. Swiatek had been due to face No. 25 Marta Kostyuk in Monday's third-round action, but the Ukrainian was forced to withdraw due to a right wrist injury.

Ostapenko had been scheduled to face Camila Osorio in Sunday's second-round action, but an abdominal injury ended the Colombian's hopes before she took to the court.

Ostapenko will face Lucia Bronzetti in the third round. Swiatek will play either Sorana Cirstea or lucky loser Yuan Yue in the fourth round.

--IANS

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