Big guns advance but an epic battle for Wawrinka

Stan Wawrinka won a see-saw contest against Grigor Dimitrov in the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.

Wawrinka prevailed 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) but that was only half the story as the Swiss struggled to serve out the match.

Dimitrov was 5-1 down in the final set but clawed back to level – saving two match points in the process – and force a tiebreak decider.

Wawrinka raced to a 4-0 lead in the tiebreak and, despite handing back two mini-breaks, he steadied to close out a fifth successive win over Dimitrov with a 138 miles per hour ace.

Roger Federer also secured his place in the next round with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Juan Londero in just over an hour, while Novak Djokovic came through against Sam Querrey 7-5, 6-1.

Two-time Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier Andrey Rublev surprised number 15 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-2 to set up a secondround meeting with Wawrinka.

Daniil Medvedev overcame Kyle Edmund for the second time in six days with a 6-2, 7-5 success.

Medvedev beat Edmund at the Rogers Cup in Montreal last week and won the final four games to book a last-32 date with Benoit Paire, of France.

Paire progressed when his Spanish opponent Fernando Verdasco withdrew after losing the first set 6-4.

There were also first-round wins for American pair Reilly Opelka and Frances Tiafoe, David Goffin, Denis Shapovalov and Diego Schwartzman.

Venus Williams ousted defending champion Kiki Bertens.

The seven-time grand slam champion beat the number five seed 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4) in a titanic secondround tussle that lasted two hours and 17 minutes.

Bertens had beaten Williams in a three-set thriller at Wimbledon last month.

But the 39-year-old American held her nerve this time to claim her second top-five victory of the season, alongside her win over then-number three Petra Kvitova at Indian Wells.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams withdrew from the tournament citing a back problem which forced her to pull out of the Rogers Cup final at the weekend.

The American was due to face Zarina Diyas in the first round in Ohio on Tuesday evening.

Quoted on theWTA site, she said: “I am so sad to withdraw from the Western & Southern Open as it is truly one of the tournaments I most love to play.”

Elsewhere, unseeded Anett Kontaveit upset former world number one Angelique Kerber 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 in their first-round match, while Madison Keys squeaked past 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

There were also wins for Victoria Azarenka, Donna Vekic, Jennifer Brady, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Yafan Wang.