Nadal, Pliskova advance

Rafael Nadal and Karolina Pliskova — the No. 1 seeds in the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio — advanced with straight-set wins Wednesday, while the rest of their brackets suffered more top losses.

Nadal sat out an hourlong rain delay and beat Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday night, finishing it off with two of his eight aces. Pliskova needed only 67 minutes to get a 6-2, 6-3 win over Natalia Vikhlyantseva, a solid showing as the defending champion.

The rest of the hot, muggy day was highlighted by upsets.

Venus Williams’ resurgent summer hit a bump when she was knocked out by a qualifier. Ashleigh Barty rallied for a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 upset.

“I’m going to take a break,” Williams said after fading in the steamy weather. “Just have a rest and just go big. That’s my plan.”

No. 3 Angelique Kerber lost to Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (11).

The men’s bracket lost one of the hottest players of late.

Wild-card Frances Tiafoe broke through against No. 4 Alexander Zverev, who was coming off his second ATP Masters title in Montreal. The 19-year-old American rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory that ended Zverev’s streak of 10 straight match wins.

Meanwhile, Kei Nishikori is the latest top player to pull out of the U.S. Open. He has a torn tendon in his right wrist. His agent said Nishikori heard a pop in his wrist while hitting a serve during a practice session this week at the Western & Southern Open tournament. He withdrew from the event Monday.