Pablo Carreño defended this Wednesday the honor of the battered men's Navy, who had lost his other four representatives at the Cincinnati Masters 1,000 on Tuesday. Bautista, Davidovich, Alcaraz and Ramos fell on a bad day marked by rain. The sun did rise for Carreño, who lengthened his good moment of form, which He endorsed with an Olympic bronze a few days ago, by winning 6-4 and 6-2 in the second round against German Dominik Koepfer, a rival he had beaten on the way to his medal in Tokyo.
The man from Gijón, who is getting closer to being the top-10 again, will face Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday in the second round of the Western & Southern Open, who could with a combative Andy Murray (7-6 (4) and 6-3 ). Koepfer was brought down more easily than at the Games, where he needed a tiebreaker to get ahead in the first and dominate the second later.
This time the superiority was evident throughout the match, although in the first round he had to save the five break opportunities that Koepfer had. In the second heat, Pablo raised two more to consolidate his break and, immediately afterwards, another one that was already final was scored. Both were used to the heat and humidity and, again, Carreño adapted better to the conditions. He looks resounding and confident, free to hit the ball without fear of error. Good signs just over a week from the US Open, where he was a semifinalist last year.
Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Zverev do not fail in their debut
The day of this Wednesday in Cincinnati did not bring big surprises among the favorites, since all managed to save the ballot in their debut. Among them the first favorite to the title, the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who defeated American Mackenzie McDonald in straight sets by a double 6-2 to meet Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16, who beat Alexander Bublik in two sets (6-3 and 7-5).
Stefanos Tsitsipas did not fail either, who defeated the young American Sebastian Korda in two sets 7-6 (5) and 6-3 to stand in the second round, where Italian Lorenzo Sonego will wait for him (he beat Tommy Paul 7-6 (9) and 6-2). The third favorite in discord, Alexander Zverev, debuted his Olympic champion title with victory over South African Lloyd Harris 7-6 (3) and 6-2 and in the round of 16 he will meet Argentine Guido Pella, who got rid of Fabio Fognini 6-1, 7-5.
Also solved his debut with more difficulties the Russian Andrey Rublev, who won 5-7, 6-3 and 6-1 to the Croatian Marin Cilic, and the Norwegian Casper Ruud, who won 6-7 (5), 6-0 and 7-6 (4) to American Reilly Opelka for Meet the Argentine Diego Schwartzman, who surpassed the American Frances Tiafoe (6-1, 4-6 and 6-4). The only outstanding surprise of the day was the defeat of Italian Jannik Sinner, eleventh favorite, who could not with the American gunner John Isner (5-7, 7-6 (4) and 6-4).
Results, table and schedules.