MASON, Ohio – Top-seeded Iga Swiatek survived her return to hard court at the Cincinnati Open on Wednesday night, defeating Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 6-7 (8), 6-2.
Swiatek, playing for the first time since finishing third for Poland at the Paris Olympics, set up a third-round match against Marta Kostyuk, which she won 6-3, 7-5 against Lulu Sun.
Swiatek won her third consecutive French Open title in May and has six WTA Tour victories this season.
In the men’s competition, top seed Jannik Sinner won his first match in the US Open preparatory tournament with 6:4, 7:5 against American Alex Michelsen.
Earlier, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva beat 11th-seeded Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-2 in the women’s tournament. Andreeva played her first match since winning the silver medal in doubles in Paris.
“I just went out and tried to do my best and win a game and I think I did that,” Andreeva said.
Andreeva will face 2016 Cincinnati champion Karolina Pliskova.
Russian Diana Shnaider, a semi-finalist from Toronto and Andreeva’s doubles partner in Paris, defeated Zhang Shuai 6-1, 6-4.
Sinner improved his record on hard courts to 25-2 this season and reached a third-round match against Australia’s Jordan Thompson. Sinner will now try to reach the quarterfinals for the first time in Cincinnati.
“I’m very happy to be in the next round,” said the Italian star. “For me, this is a place where I have often struggled in recent years, so let’s see what I can achieve this time.”
Thompson defeated Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-4.
Stefanos Tsitsipas caught up in his first tournament since announcing that he would no longer be coached by his father, defeating Jan-Lennard Struff 4:6, 6:4 and 6:3.
Tsitsipas, the No. 9 seed, announced that Apostolos Tsitsipas would no longer coach him after losing his first match to Kei Nishikori in Montreal last week.
