Zverev and Rybakina advance; the Williams sisters return with a heart-stopping defeat

The Spaniard Rafa Jódar ran over the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo this Monday at the Cincinnati Open on a day also marked by the return of the Williams sisters to a doubles match four years later and in which other favorites such as Alexander Zverev and Elena Rybakina.

After the elimination this weekend of Novak Djokovic and Ben Shelton, none of the favorites failed this Monday.

The German’Sascha’ Zverev (n.3) defeated the Frenchman Terence Atmane, the Australian Alex de Miñaur (n.8) got rid of the British Arthur Fery or the Italian Cobolli (n.10) did the same with the Belgian Alexander Blockx.

In addition, the Argentine Thiago Agustín Strap (n.50) beat the Spanish Martín Landaluce by 7-6(5) and 7-6(4) and confirmed his sweet moment with his third consecutive round of 16 in a 1,000 Masters, after those achieved in Rome and Canada.

On the other hand, the Brazilian João Fonsecawho was supposed to play in the round of 16 this Tuesday, withdrew from Cincinnati due to an abdominal injury that also puts his participation in the USA Open in doubt.

In the women’s draw, the main seeds such as the Kazakh also passed Rybakina (n.2), the American Jessica Pegula (n.3), the Polish Iga Swiatek (n.5) or the Czech Linda Noskova (n.8).

Rybakina defeated the Polish Magdalena Fręch 6-4 and 7-6(2) and maintains the pressure on the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka for number one in the WTA ranking. The Kazakh will take the lead if she conquers Cincinnati and Sabalenka does not reach the final. For her part, Pegula won 7-5 and 6-2 against her compatriot Emma Navarro – daughter of the owner of the tournament – and Iga Swiatek came back against the Greek Maria Sakkari 4-6, 6-1 and 6-1.

The return of the Williams

Two months after his frustrated return at Wimbledon due to an injury to Serena Williamsshe and her sister Venus They played a doubles match together again, four years after their last appearance at the 2022 US Open.

The Williams fell at the hands of the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk and the American Peyton Stearns by 6-2, 1-6 and 10-8 in 1 hour and 18 minutes, an elimination that soured that long-awaited return.

The sisters, especially Serena, with much less experience than Venus, started the match a little cold, but reacted forcefully in the second set to force the ‘super tie-break’, in which they almost came back from 6-0 down.

The big question now is whether the sisters will get back together in two weeks at the USA Openwhere they have not yet confirmed their participation.

Although Serena was retired for almost four years, Venus has continued to compete in both singles and doubles and last year she reached the quarterfinals precisely in New York, along with Canadian Leylah Fernández.