No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy pulled out a 7-6 (2), 6-1 win over No. 26 seed Ashlyn Krueger, who was one of three Americans to fall during third-round play at the Cincinnati Open on Tuesday in Mason, Ohio.
Paolini trailed 6-5 in the first set and had to save one set point to force the third-set tiebreaker. There, she conceded the opening point before storming past Krueger and taking control for the rest of the match.
Krueger hit three aces but committed 10 double faults along the way.
Paolini, seeking another WTA 1000 title after prevailing on home soil in Rome back in May, is on to the Round of 16 to face Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
Krejcikova received a fight from 17-year-old California native Iva Jovic and came away impressed after winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
“I wish I played like her when I was 17,” Krejcikova said. “I feel like she’s (going to have) a great future ahead of her. I’m really happy I found my way through.”
Jovic had Krejcikova, a two-time major champion (2021 French, 2024 Wimbledon), on the ropes for a good part of the match. She raced out to a 3-0 lead in the second set on her way to evening the match, and she saved 12 of the 15 break points she faced.
That included a whopping six match points in the final game before Krejcikova converted on her seventh attempt and emphatically celebrated with her team.
“I like all of my shots,” Krejcikova said, “and it’s very nice when I can put all of them together so they are making sense. Sometimes they don’t, and then it’s a disaster.”
The other American to fall Tuesday was No. 29 seed McCartney Kessler, as German 20-year-old Ella Seidel saved two match points to stun Kessler 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (6). Neither player broke serve in the third set until the tiebreaker, when Kessler quickly established a two-point edge before Seidel ripped off the final four points of the match.
In anoither upset, Varvara Gracheva of France won 73.5 percent (25 of 34) of her first-serve points while notching a 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 11 Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic
No. 2 seed Coco Gauff did not face the possibility of an upset Tuesday because she did not have to play. Her third-round opponent, No. 32 seed Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, withdrew due to illness and Gauff advanced via walkover.
In the lone evening match to reach a conclusion, Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti rallied from a sound thrashing in the first set to upset No. 23 Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula had just knotted her match with No. 31 Magda Linette of Poland at a set apiece when lightning in the area forced a suspension in play at 9:03 p.m. Heavy rains followed, resulting in the cancellation of all competition 30 minutes later.
Linette captured a first-set tie-breaker, 7-6 (5), but Pegula shook off a 51 first-serve percentage mark to break twice and win the second set, 6-3. The two will resume their third round match on Wednesday.
The third-round match between No. 16 Clara Tauson of Denmark and Veronika Kudermentova of Russia never got underway and will take place on Wednesday.
–Field Level Media
