CINCINNATI – Andy Murray returned to the ATP Tour after last competing at Wimbledon, reaching the second round of the Cincinnati Masters with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
The three-time Grand Slam champion who owns two titles here and played the 2016 final, has been struggling over the summer with a groin strain.
Wild card Murray and Gasquet, a longtime rival whose 53rd ranking meant he had to qualify, first played 15 years ago.
The Scot, who reached the Wimbledon third round, leads their series 9-4. They last met in 2019 here.
Murray hammered 14 aces and broke three times in the win lasting just under two hours. After three games which lasted for a total of 20 minutes to start, Murray grabbed a 5-3 lead, which he lost a game later before re-breaking to win the first set 6-4.
Gasquet was broken in the final game of the match after saving a match point before Murray prevailed.
Also, birthday boy Jannik Sinner turned 20 on a rain-interrupted day and celebrated with a win. The young gun was joined in the second round after a delayed start by 34-year-old Italian compatriot Fabio Fognini.
Sinner erased memories of a disheartening first-round loss a week ago in Toronto when he went down in his opening match to Australian qualifier James Duckworth.
The youngster, ranked 15th, came good in Cincinnati as he defeated Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-2, 7-5.
Fognini joined the party with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 win over Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia in a first-time meeting.
“I gave myself the best present possible,” Sinner said according to AFP. “I played and won a match on my birthday at a big tournament.” Sinner later posted pictures on social media of himself and his team enjoying a celebratory pizza.
Argentine Diego Schwartzman turned 29 on the day, defeating British number one Dan Evans 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 after more than two hours.
The South American welcomed the return of full crowds at the event, saying they give him optimism amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Right now I’m happy. In the US where the tournaments are almost 100 per cent people and 100 per cent normal.
“I think happiness is coming back, and normal life is coming back. Maybe we are seeing the light at the end.”
South African Lloyd Harris earned a place in the second round against Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Alexander Zverev as he beat Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 6-4 with the help of 11 aces.
Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime overcame his first-round loss a week ago at home to beat Marton Fucsovics 7-6 (7/0), 6-3 in a match interrupted by the rain which plagued play all day.
“It was really important to win the first set because of the rain delay. I’m happy I was able to find a way today,” the winner said.
Dominik Koepfer won an all-German first-rounder with his defeat of Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6 (7/2), 5-7, 6-3.
In the women’s draw at the joint event, Roland Garros finalist Barbora Krejcikova made a singles debut at the midwest venue as she defeated Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2.
Czech 12th seed Petra Kvitova, a two-time semi-finalist, beat 2019 champion Madison Keys 7-5, 6-4,avenging a defeat by the American in January, 2020, in Brisbane.
Spain’s Paula Badosa saved five match points in two and three-quarter hours to get past Petra Martic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11/9) and next takes on third seed and Montreal semi-finalist Aryna Sabalenka.
Swiss Jil Teichmann stopped Romania’s Sorana Cirstea with the loss of just two games.
Former French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko advanced past Slovene Tamara Zidansek 7-5, 6-1. British qualifier Heather Watson put out Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, ending a four-match loss streak that began in Birmingham prior to Wimbledon.
Pavlyuchenkova out due to visa issues
French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has withdrawn from this week’s Cincinnati event due to visa issues that she hopes to have sorted out in time so she can compete in the US Open, the Russian said.
Pavlyuchenkova, who fell in the second round last week in Montreal, was the 16th seed in Cincinnati and scheduled to play her opening match against American Bernarda Pera.
“Unfortunately I have to withdraw from Western & Southern Open. Still in Canada, I am waiting for my US visa,” she wrote on Twitter according to Reuters. “Hopefully, I’ll get it soon and will be there in time for the US Open.”
The US Open runs Aug. 30-Sept. 12.
Pavlyuchenkova competed at this year’s Tokyo Olympics where she lost to eventual champion Belinda Bencic in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles competition but captured gold in the mixed doubles event with Andrey Rublev.
In addition to donating prize money to relief efforts in Haiti following a deadly earthquake, tennis star Naomi Osaka said she plans to do more.
“I feel like I´m not really doing that much,” Osaka said. “I´m trying to figure out what I can do. The prize money thing was the first thing I thought I could do that would raise the most awareness. I guess that is the reason I announced it.”
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the region Saturday, with an estimated death toll of 1,400.
On Saturday night, Osaka tweeted her decision to donate her prize money from this week´s US Open tune-up tournament in Ohio.
Osaka, who has a Haitian father and Japanese mother, has an opening-round bye in Cincinnati.
When asked about Haiti during the news conference, Osaka became emotional and had to step away for a few minutes before returning to answer more questions.
Haiti is also dealing with the fallout from last month´s assassination of president Jovenel Moise, and now the effects of a tropical storm which is hampering earthquake recovery efforts.
“It´s really scary,” Osaka said according to AP. “I see the news every day, and honestly the earthquake was kind of close to my parents´ school there, so I´m honestly not really sure how that´s doing and I haven´t seen any pictures or video of it yet.”
Osaka, who is ranked No. 2 in the world, won her second career Australian Open earlier this year, but withdrew from the French Open and Wimbledon because of mental health concerns.
“It was something I needed to do for myself,” Osaka said. “I was a little bit embarrassed to go out because I didn´t know if people were looking at me in a different way. The biggest eye-opener was going to the Olympics and having other athletes come up to me and say that they were really glad that I did what I did. I’m proud of what I did.”
Osaka also said she reached out to US Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, who withdrew from the US women’s team final in Tokyo for her own mental health needs.
Discussion about this post