It rained on and off for most of Sunday in Cincinnati, but Karen Khachanov and Denis Shapovalov made the most of it in more ways than one.
The singles stars enjoyed the delays with the centre court crowd, even briefly dancing to the music during a delay before battling past Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop 7-6(6), 6-7(12), 10-6 to reach the second round of the Western & Southern Open.
“Seriously thanks to all the fans who stayed late and through the delays!!” Shapovalov wrote in an Instagram story. “Your energy the entire match was 🔥.”
In singles action, Botic van de Zandschulp set a second-round meeting with World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev when he overcame American Maxime Cressy 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
The Dutchman, who is making his debut in Cincinnati, fired seven aces and broke Cressy five times to advance after two hours and four minutes in a rain-disrupted clash at the ATP Masters 1000 event.
The 25-year-old now holds a 29-20 record this season, having enjoyed a run to his first tour-level final in Munich. Van de Zandschulp advanced to the second round in Montreal last week and will be aiming to go one step further in Ohio.
However, he faces a difficult second-round test against Medvedev, who leads their ATP Head2Head series 2-0. The 26-year-old ended van de Zandschulp’s dream US Open run at the quarter-final stage last season, when the Dutchman sat outside the Top 100. With his victory over Cressy, van de Zandschulp is up to No. 24 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.
American wild card Mackenzie McDonald defeated Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-0, 6-1 in the only other singles main draw match of the day. Players who qualified included Lorenzo Musetti, Thanasi Kokkinakis, David Goffin and Lorenzo Sonego.
Goffin Advances Through Cincinnati Qualifying
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