Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka debuted this Sunday with victory at the Cincinnati Open, a tournament in which world number one is at stake. The day also left the eliminations of the American Ben Shelton and the Norwegian Casper Ruud, while the Spanish Daniel Mérida continued his great moment on hard courts.
Sabalenka, number one in the WTA for 96 weeks, beat Australian Talia Gibson, number 65 in the ranking, 6-2 and 7-6(2). The Belarusian faces the tournament with pressure from Elena Rybakina, who is only 354 points away in the world rankings.
An early elimination of Sabalenka could see Rybakina take over the top spot. In the third round, the Belarusian will face the Chinese Wang Xiyu, number 108 in the world, this Tuesday.
The favorites advance in
Cincinnati
In addition to Sabalenka, other top favorites surpassed their respective second-round matches. Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Mirra Andreeva and Iga Swiatek also advanced.
Swiatek, champion of the Canadian tournament, decisively defeated the Colombian Emiliana Arango 6-3 and 6-0. The South American had starred in one of the surprises of the first round by eliminating the American Venus Williams.
Shelton falls after conquering Canada
In the men’s draw, Ben Shelton suffered an unexpected elimination just three days after winning the Canadian Masters 1,000.
The American, who had risen to sixth place in the world rankings, lost 6-4, 6-4 to the Portuguese Jaime Faria, world number 79.
Other members of the Top 10 did manage to advance, including the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the Russian Daniil Medvedev and the American Taylor Fritz.
The day also saw the retirement of Casper Ruud. The Norwegian, number 17 in the ranking, abandoned due to physical problems and set off alarms for the United States Open.
Daniel Mérida remains unstoppable
One of the great news for Spanish tennis was the performance of Daniel Mérida. The Madrid native, world number 39, defeated the Belgian Zizou Bergs, number 33, 6-3 and 6-2 in less than an hour and 20 minutes.
Mérida will face Taylor Fritz in the third round this Tuesday. The Spaniard is going through a spectacular streak on hard courts: just two weeks ago he had not yet won a match as a professional on this surface and now he has six consecutive wins.
His great moment began with his arrival in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Masters 1,000 and continues now in Cincinnati.
The other two Spaniards who competed this Sunday, Jessica Bouzas and Pablo Carreño, were eliminated.
Cerúndolo and Fonseca keep Latin American tennis alive
The day was not particularly favorable for the Latin American representatives either. Only the Argentine Juan Manuel Cerúndolo and the Brazilian Joao Fonseca managed to advance.
Cerúndolo, world number 51, defeated Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, number 28, and will have Auger-Aliassime as his next opponent.
For his part, Fonseca beat the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-2, 6-3 and will face the Australian Christopher O’Connell in the third round.
Among those eliminated were the Argentines Francisco Cerúndolo, Sebastián Báez and Marco Trungelliti, as well as the Colombian Emiliana Arango and the Peruvian Ignacio Buse.
Venus and Serena Williams return together
The Cincinnati Open will experience one of its most anticipated moments this Monday with the return of Venus and Serena Williams as a doubles couple.
The American sisters will compete together again for the first time since 2022. This time they will face the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk and the American Peyton Stearns.
