Cincinnati, Aug 11
No. 2-seeded Coco Gauff mastered herself and opponent Wang Xinyu with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in 70 minutes to reach the third round at the Cincinnati Masters.
Gauff has now won her sixth opening match in eight WTA 1000s this year.
She’ll meet No. 32 Dayana Yastremska, a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 winner over Viktoriya Tomova, on Tuesday. Gauff has beaten Yastremska three of four times.
Gauff is one of eight Americans in the WTA Rankings Top 50 and the fifth to advance to the third round. Saturday saw No. 5 Amada Anisimova, No. 6 Madison Keys and wild card Taylor Townsend get through. On Sunday, Gauff was joined by another 21-year-old, Ashlyn Krueger, who was a 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 winner over Anastasija Sevastova, WTA reports.
Later, No. 4 Jessica Pegula equalled her former doubles partner with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Kimberly Birrell. Next for Pegula is No. 31 Magda Linette, who beat Rebecca Sramkova 7-6 (4), 6-0.
Only Aryna Sabalenka (47) and Iga Swiatek (44) have won more matches this year at the WTA level than Pegula’s 37.