Karen Khachanov cruised past Alexander Bublik 6-4 6-4 at the Western and Southern Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York in his first match since 28 February.
Khachanov earned his first break in the first game and sealed the opening set when Bublik hit a forehand into the net. The Russian player broke serve in the ninth game of the second set with a backhand winner to take a 5-4 lead. The 2018 Paris Bercy champion fired seven aces and hit 79 % of his first service points.
Daniel Evans from Great Britain scored his second win over Andrey Rublev in their third head-to-head match this year with the scoreline of 7-5 3-6 6-2 after 2 hours and 32 minutes.
Rublev beat Evans in three sets en route to winning his second consecutive title this year in Adelaide. Evans avenged this defeat by beating Rublev in Dubai reaching the semifinal.
Evans set up a match against two-time Western and Southern Open semifinalist Milos Raonic.
Evans got a third consecutive break at 5-5 with two consecutive forehands. The British player held on his serve in the next game to seal the opening set after 68 minutes with a backhand passing shot down the line.
Rublev broke serve in the fourth game of the second set to take a 3-1 lead. Evans broke straight back in the next game. Rublev broke for the second time at 4-3 and hit his fifth ace of the match to win the second set 6-3 forcing the match to the third set.
Evans earned an early break to open up a 3-0 lead and hit consecutive backhand winners to break for the sixth time at 5-2 securing his spot in the second round.
“It was a long one. It was just tough to get rid of him really. He was hanging around. I played some good tennis and some average tennis as well. I did not serve great, but I hung in and got the win”, said Evans.
Diego Schwartzman edged Norway’s Casper Ruud 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 in 1 hour and 56 minutes. The Argentine player earned his first mini-break at 2-2 in the tie-break and won five consecutive points to seal the opening set with a crosscourt forehand return winner.
Schwartzman got an early break in the second game to open up a 3-0 lead at the start of the second set and held on his next service games to take the win setting up a second round match against US Reilly Opelka.
Former Western and Southern Open champion Grigor Dimitrov came back from 1-3 down in the second set to beat Auckland champion Ugo Humbert 6-3 6-4. The Bulgarian player set up a second round match against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, who converted three of his four break point chances to edge Norbert Gombos 6-3 6-4.
Tennys Sandgren beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-3 7-6 (9-7) to score his third win over Italian players this year after beating Matteo Berrettini and Fabio Fognini at the Australian Open. Sandgren broke serve at love in the fourth game to open up a 3-1 lead. Sonego held on his serve in the sixth game for 4-2 at deuce. Sandgren served out the first set at deuce without saving break points.
The US player saved a break point at 2-3 in the second set. Both players held on their serve in the next games en route to the tie-break. Sandgren got a mini-break to take a 3-2 lead in the tie-break, but Sonego won four consecutive points to earn three consecutive set points at 6-3. The Italian player did not convert the first two set points and made a double fault on his third chance.
Sonego saved a match point at 6-7, but Sandgren converted his second chance to win the tie-break 9-7.
