On another busy day at the Western & Southern Open in Cincy, there were four matches up first at 11am local time. Three of them were decided in straight sets with Madison Keys the first winner of the day with a comprehensive 6-2 6-1 victory over Daria Kasatkina. I’m really fond of both players so I was happy and sad in equal measures. It’s wonderful to see Madison able to focus on tennis without seemingly being bothered by the wrist. Her stats were great as she scored a seventh consecutive win on tour.
Madison in press – so good to hear!
Svetlana Kuznetsova won her first match since Wimbledon, beating Yulia Putintseva, 6-3 6-4. The Russian player served out the match to 30 with a rasping backhand winner on match point. Putintseva mounted a comeback from 0-5 down in the first set and had led 3-1 in the second set.
Anastasija Sevastova set up yet another match-up in 2017 with Simona Halep after a straight sets win over Roberta Vinci, 6-2 7-5. Sevastova had a bit of a collapse after missing a match point when serving for the match at *5-4 but stayed in front and broke for the win.
Camila Giorgi scored a superb win over Daria Gavrilova, 7-6(1) 5-7 6-3 in two hours and 34 minutes. There was little to separate the pair through the first two sets with neither player able to gain lasting momentum. Giorgi played a fine third set, producing some great angles and having the confidence to move forward to close points at the net.
You don’t see this often…
DC – Julia Goerges d. Francoise Abanda, 6-4 6-4
Cincy – Julia Goerges d. Francoise Abanda, 6-4 6-4
Another great win for Goerges and you can hear from her after her first round win over Radwanska – really warm to Julia! 🙂
Caroline Wozniacki was solid on serve, beating Elena Vesnina, 6-2 6-4 – the Dane won 75% of first serve points and 53% of second serve points. This was Wozniacki’s second straight sets win over Vesnina in the last few months and she continues to thrive in 2017 with this being her 47th win of the year! Check out some great photos from Omar Boraby below.
A duo of noteworthy straight set winners…
Carla Suárez Navarro won back-to-back matches on hard courts for just the second time this year, beating Aleksandra Krunic, 6-2 6-2.
Dominika Cibulkova won back-to-back matches for just the second time since Miami, beating Alizé Cornet, 6-1 6-4. The second set was a break-happy affair with seven breaks of serve in ten games.
Ashleigh Barty scored the biggest win of her career, taking out the number 10 seed, Venus Williams, 6-3 2-6 6-2. I wrote a review of the match which is up on the blog and linked below.
Ekaterina Makarova needed eight match points to see off Angelique Kerber in a dramatic match, topped off by a quite incredible third set tiebreak. Makarova won 6-4 1-6 7-6(11) in two hours and 38 minutes. If you missed out on the match, I attempted to recap it all at the link below using the WTA video highlights and photos from Omar who was at the match.
While I was asleep…
Sloane Stephens beat Petra Kvitova, 6-2 6-3. I feared for Petra in the humid conditions and furthermore, she came out sporting strapping on her leg. Stephens has now beaten Safarova and Kvitova twice in the space of a week!
Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina both enjoyed straight set wins at night to book their places in the last 16.
A trio of polls are up for Thursday’s line-up of third round action. I’m disappointed by the schedule with the men taking centre stage on the top two courts. The world number one is on Stadium 3! 😲
A few good pics of Lucie on the practice courts!
Check out the best photos from Tuesday’s action at the link below – thanks to Omar for the pics!
And finally, a full album of photos is up on the MTB Facebook page for Tuesday.
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Looks good for Sloane Stephens to make another QF and put her closer to the top 100 once again.
Svitolina vs Goerges could be a real cracker. Their only previous match was won by the German on Stuttgart clay earlier this year for Fed Cup.
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Yes, i’d fancy Sloane to reach QFs too. I’m rather stunned by how quickly she has got back to winning matches and vs. quality opposition too. Agree that Svitolina-Goerges should be good, hats off to Goerges for her recent form. I’d still stick with Svitolina to come through.
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The problem for Sloane is always going to be maintaining though. When she’s playing well it’s just effortless and graceful flowing tennis. But then her concentration dips and it all turns very messy. Up until now she’s been able to check herself back in mentally when that happens, but over the years she’s been prone to getting flustered or upset with herself. With a more positive outlook she’d easily be top ten.
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I think Sloane has a more positive attitude and she is playing with great confidence. It showed in the past two matches when she was ahead and her opponents played the “injury delay” game. Both times she had trouble holding right afterwards but both times she managed to pull out the win. I think she is confident because she is now moving well and without the foot pain that has hampered her for so long. I wish her luck in the months to come.
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Yeah me too. She’s fabulous to watch when it goes right. She just glides across the court.
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I agree with the Bookies favorites in all of Thursdays matches. I thought the Bookies would see The Mug beating Keys, but no, they see Keys as a slight favorite.
Myself, the Bookies and the Moo’s pole all agree, which must be a sign that the Apocalypse is nigh.
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😂😂😂
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Off topic but Kuznetsovas outfit is one of the ugliest that I’ve ever seen any player wear. The colour, the fit, the design…that random one arm sleeve(!)
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Just watched back her match, speechless at the outfit. It’s an interesting one for sure!
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