World number one Aryna Sabalenka saved 12 break points to survive her Cincinnati opener against Czech Marketa Vondrousova 7-5 6-1 on Saturday, as the men\u2019s defending champion Jannik Sinner cruised past Colombian qualifier Daniel Galan 6-1 6-1.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, who had a first-round bye, had not played since her semi-final defeat at Wimbledon and said the downtime served her well as she mounted a tremendous defensive effort to set up a meeting with Briton Emma Raducanu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played so many matches this season so I\u2019m quite experienced to handle those key moments,\u201d Sabalenka told Tennis Channel. \u201cKey for me is always to go for it without doubting my decisions. So far it\u2019s been working really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raducanu made easy work of Serbian Olga Danilovic 6-3 6-2 in her first match under new coach Francisco Roig, after a handful of confidence-building performances this summer that included a trip to the semi-finals at the Washington Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really building some momentum. I\u2019m really happy with how I\u2019ve stayed pretty consistent over the last few months,\u201d said Raducanu, who lost to Sabalenka in a third-round thriller at Wimbledon this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel like there\u2019s a long way to go but just working hard behind the scenes, putting a lot of hours in and hoping I can trust in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s Sinner, who also took a break following his Wimbledon win, was in pristine form as he produced just four unforced errors to swat aside Galan in 59 minutes earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
He will next play Canadian Gabriel Diallo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to play here, I feel like the ball is flying, it\u2019s very fast,\u201d said Sinner.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when you lose confidence with a couple of shots, it makes it very, very difficult to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poland\u2019s third seed Iga Swiatek was back on top form after an early exit in Montreal as she sprinted through the first set and fended off four break points in the second to beat Anastasia Potapova comfortably 6-1 6-4.<\/p>\n
She next plays Ukraine\u2019s Marta Kostyuk, who she has defeated in all three previous meetings, in the third round of the U.S. Open tune-up tournament.<\/p>\n
Australian Open winner Madison Keys had a tougher opening to her Cincinnati campaign, saving two match points to survive against German Eva Lys with a 1-6 6-3 7-6(1) win to punch her ticket to the third round where she will play Japan\u2019s Aoi Ito.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept trying to listen to everyone here cheering me,\u201d said American Keys, who triumphed in 2019 and clinched Saturday\u2019s affair with an unreturnable forehand. \u201cIt helped me get back into the match and across the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier on Saturday, Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech upset Norwegian 11th seed Casper Ruud 6-7(5) 6-4 6-2, while eighth-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti lost to France\u2019s Benjamin Bonzi 5-7 6-4 7-6(4).<\/p>\n
Fourth seed Taylor Fritz sent over a dozen aces to close out the day\u2019s programme on Center Court with a routine 6-4 6-4 win over American compatriot Emilio Nava and book a meeting with Italian Lorenzo Sonego. (Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ken Ferris and Christian Schmollinger)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World number one Aryna Sabalenka saved 12 break points to survive her Cincinnati opener against Czech Marketa Vondrousova…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,593,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-58515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-tennis","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}