Chung, Raonic among winners in first round
Williams appears back in form with a quick victory Monday night.
Serena Williams MASON — bounced back from the most lopsided loss of her career, cruising past Daria Gavrilova 6-1, 6-2 at the Western & Southern Open on Monday night. Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam winner who returned to the tour this year after the birth of her first child, needed just 65 minutes to dispatch Gavrilova and was scheduled to face eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova in Tuesday’s second round.
“You’ve got to be able to go back-to-back,” said Williams, a two-time Cincinnati champion. “I don’t get byes anymore right now. I’m OK with it.”
Williams lost to Johanna Konta 6-1, 6-0 in San Jose, Calif., before withdrawing from last week’s Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Also Monday: Tenth-seeded Novak Djokovic regrouped after blowing a 3-0 second-set lead to get past Steve Johnson, 6-4, 7-6 (4). The reigning Wimbledon champion failed to convert eight match points before he finally put Johnson away. Wild card Stan Wawrinka, working his way back from two left knee surgeries, advanced with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over 12th-seeded Diego Schwartzman. Andy Murray lost to Lucas Pouille 6-1, 1-6, 6-4, clearing another obstacle for Roger Federer in this U.S. Open tuneup.
Early Tuesday, Australian Open semifinalist Hyeon Chung won the last five games to rally past Jack Sock 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the first round. Two-time Cincinnati semifinalist Milos Raonic advanced with a 6-3, 6-3 first-round win over qualifier Dusan Lajovic; Robin Haase also made it to the second round, defeating Filip Krajinovic 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. On the women’s side, 15th-seeded Elise Mertens scored a 6-4, 6-2 win over Magdalena Rybarikova; Ashleigh Barty, seeded 16th, stopped wild-card Marketa Vondrousova 6-3, 7-5; and Maria Sakkari upset Indian Wells
champion Naomi Osaka 6-3, 7-6 (8). Ekaterina Makarova cruised past qualifier Ana Bogdan 6-3, 6-2.
Murray had his best result since missing 11 months following hip surgery when he reached the quarterfinals in Washington two weeks ago. But he had a hard time adjusting to the Cincinnati courts. “The start of the match was not good,” he said. “It was a pretty bad first set. ”
Federer, seeded second, has won in Cincinnati a record seven times but hasn’t played here since winning in 2015. In 2016, he had a knee injury and in 2017 he had back problems.
“Cincinnati has always been a good tournament for me,” said Federer, the reigning Australian Open champion. Even with topranked Rafael Nadal missing, Federer liked the strength of this field, especially with Murray and Djokovic having recovered from injuries. “That’s why you have such a good, exciting draw,” Federer said before Murray’s match was over. “It’s a pity Rafa isn’t playing. He would have added massively to that part of the draw.”
Monday’s first full day of main-draw competition opened with 13th-seeded Madison Keys holding off Bethanie Mattek-Sands 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 to reach the sec- ond round. Wild-card Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, also came from behind to beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4.