JAPAN’S NAOMI OSAKA battled back to take a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over American Coco Gauff on Wednesday and advance into the third round of the WTA Cincinnati Masters.
Top seed Ashleigh Barty moved on as well, bouncing back from a Tokyo Olympic first-round loss to start her pre-US Open campaign with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) win over Britain’s Heather Watson.
And Simona Halep withdrew from her second-round match due to a right thigh injury she suffered at the US Open hardcourt tuneup event.
The fifth seed from Romania was to have faced American Jessica Pegula but pulled out after hurting herself in the previous round in a victory over Poland’s Magda Linette.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka is playing her first event since the Games, where she went out in the third round.
Gauff had won the pair’s most recent prior match in the third round of the 2020 Australian Open after losing a year earlier at the US Open.
Osaka said the early stage of the match saw her trying various things in her first match outside Tokyo since Roland Garros.
“The first set was an experiment,” Osaka said. “I was trying to see what was going on as I’ve not played that many matches.
“I was just examining here and trying to stay calm, trying to keep a level head.”
Osaka said victory “means a lot to me, especially coming off Tokyo. She’s not my favorite to play. It’s very straining mentally.
“But this is a win I can definitely congratulate myself for.”
🤗@naomiosaka x @CocoGauff #CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/Wb1ZO2zVlW
— Western & Southern Open (@CincyTennis) August 18, 2021
Before the Olympics, Osaka last played at Roland Garros after announcing she would reserve the right to avoid mandatory post-match media conferences, which she said damaged her mental health.
That vow lasted through a first-round stadium interview before she withdrew, going on to also skip Wimbledon.
The issue flared again this week in her first news conference, with a straightforward query causing her to burst into tears before composing herself and getting through the session.
On Wednesday, she was calm and composed in her responses to reporters.
“I was wondering why was I so affected, I guess, like what made me not want to do media in the first place,” Osaka said.
“I’m wondering if I was scared because sometimes I would see headlines of like players losing and then the headline the next day would be like a collapse or they’re not that great anymore.”
Osaka will next play Jil Teichmann after the Swiss put out American Bernarda Pera 6-1, 6-4.
Angelique Kerber defeated Elina Svitolina 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 while former US Open winner Bianca Andreescu of Canada lost to Karolina Muchova 6-4, 6-2 in the second round.
Victoria Azarenka defeated Alison Riske 6-2, 7-5 while fellow former Grand Slam champions Petra Kvitova and Jelena Ostapenko both won.
Kvitova stopped Veronika Kudermetova 6-2, 6-4 while Ostapenko advanced 6-7 (2/7), 5-4 when American Jennifer Brady retired.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray’s wild card run at the ATP Cincinnati Masters ended with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 loss to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.
The Scotsman, who has been struggling to re-establish himself on tour after his latest injury — a groin problem — lost the second-round contest in one and three-quarter hours to the player who knocked Roger Federer out of Wimbledon.
Murray fired a respectable 11 aces to the 17 of his ninth-seeded opponent in the first-time meeting while saving four break points.
“This week was fairly positive. I played much better than at Wimbledon and the grass season,” he said.
“This week my body felt good, even if hardcourts are not easy on the body. Physically I was tired after some of the long rallies, but I felt fine.”
The 34-year-old said the only factors that would make him reconsider his comeback were “if my body doesn’t feel good ” or “my tennis starts going backwards.”
The two-time Cincinnati winner, ranked 105th, owns 14 career Masters 1000 titles, the most of any man in a field missing the “Big 3″ trio of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — all 20-time Grand Slam champions.
Olympic silver medalist Karen Khachanov joined Murrray in defeat as the Russian exited 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4 to Canada’s 12th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The winner will next face Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini for a quarter-final place.
Former champion Grigor Dimitrov reached the third round over Kazakh Alexander Bublik 6-3, 7-5.
Meanwhile this evening, seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams was among the US Open women’s and men’s wildcard selections announced by the US Tennis Association.
The 41-year-old American, a two-time winner in New York who lifted the trophy in 2000 and 2001, will make her 15th consecutive main draw appearance and 23rd all-time start in the Flushing Meadows fortnight.
The former world number one has not missed a Grand Slam since 2013 at Wimbledon but has slid to 112th in the WTA rankings, putting her outside the direct entries into the field for the year’s final Grand Slam tournament, which begins on 30 August.
And Dominic Thiem announced his withdrawal from the competition.
Women's singles wild cards have been awarded, featuring 2x champion @Venuseswilliams & former semifinalist @CoCoVandey.
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 18, 2021
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