Nadal, Pliskova win amid upsets
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Rafael Nadal and Karolina Pliskova 鈥 the No. 1 seeds at the Western & Southern Open 鈥 advanced with straight-set wins on Wednesday, while the rest of their brackets suffered more top losses.
Nadal sat out an hour-long rain delay and beat Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday night, finishing it off with two of his eight aces.
Pliskova needed only 67 minutes to get a 6-2, 6-3 win over Natalia Vikhlyantseva, a solid showing as the defending champion. She鈥檇 never faced the Russian before.
The rest of the hot, muggy day in Mason, Ohio, was highlighted by upsets.
Venus Williams鈥 resurgent summer hit a bump when she was knocked out by a qualifier. Australian Ashleigh Barty rallied for a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 upset on a humid afternoon that played to her advantage.
Barty, ranked No. 48 on the ATP tour, had never beaten a top 10 player 鈥 going 0-6 鈥 before knocking off the ninth-ranked Williams.
Williams is enjoying a comeback season, reaching the finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon at age 37. She faded in the heat and humidity on Wednesday against a player who is 3-13 career against top 20 players. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to take a break,鈥 Williams said. 鈥淛ust have a rest and just go big. That鈥檚 my plan.鈥
No. 3 Angelique Kerber lost to Ekaterina Makarova 4-6, 6-1, 6-7 (11), with the Russian converting on her eighth match point to end a 2-hour, 39-minute match. Makarova also upset Kerber at Roland Garros this season.
Kerber fell behind 2-5 in the third set, rallied to a tiebreaker, then got up 8-7. She wasted her only chance to finish it off. 鈥淭he third set was a completely up-and-down set,鈥 the German said.
Makarova got cramps in both legs during the third set, and they got worse during the tiebreaker, forcing her to get treatment briefly. 鈥淚 had the match points, and then of course with the nerves, it kind of felt even more,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t came back again during the tiebreak because it was great, long points and both of us running and running.鈥
The men鈥檚 bracket lost one of the hottest player of late.
Wildcard Frances Tiafoe broke through against No. 4 Alexander Zverev, who was coming off his second ATP Masters title in Montreal. The 19-year-old American hadn鈥檛 taken a set in his two career matches against Zverev, but rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory that ended the German鈥檚 streak of 10 straight match wins.
Zverev won back-to-back titles in Washington and Montreal, leaving him little time to rest. It showed against Tiafoe, who was more aggressive as the match went along.
鈥淚鈥檓 completely dead right now,鈥 Zverev said. 鈥淚 have been dead for the past two days. I could have easily pulled the plug in the second set, but I鈥檓 not going to retire just because I鈥檓 tired.鈥
The upsets further depleted both brackets, which were already thinned by injuries to top players. The men鈥檚 bracket is without Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and defending champion Marin Cilic because of injuries. The women鈥檚 bracket is missing Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova.
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