It appears that more than one top player has got stuck in the mud that is surrounding the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio. Just as several cars were forced to request a “towing help” to get back on the road after the thunderstorms on Monday and Tuesday evening turned the parking lots into muddy pits, on a sweltering Wednesday afternoon in Southern Ohio quite a few big names have not managed to continue their ride towards the final rounds of the Western&Southern Open.
The first top player to bow out of the tournament was sixth-seed Japanese Kei Nishikori, who suffered a 7-6(2) 6-4 loss to his fellow countryman Yoshihito Nishioka. Nishikori appeared not to be on his best day as he called for the doctor twice during the match: the first time he complained about not being able to breathe properly, and he was given a nasal spray to help decongest his sinus. A few games later, after he lacklusterly lost the first set, he was given some tablets, but his performance remained well below par, allowing Nishioka to record the most important win of his career, against the player who is almost a legend in Japanese tennis.
Immediately after Nishioka’s celebrations, Cincinnati’s Grandstand offered another upset: No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, after crashing out of the Rogers Cup in Montreal on his first match one week ago, came across another unexpected loss against German Jan-Lennard Struff (n. 36 ATP), who conceded only 19 points on his serve (out of 98) in the entire match, and scored an impressive 6-4 6-7(5) 7-6(8) win.
As the afternoon proceeded and the temperature climbed above the 30-degree mark, Russian qualifier Andrey Rublev, today No 70 as he is rebuilding his ranking after a lower back stress fracture, booked his spot to play Roger Federer in the third-round defeating Stan Wawrinka by 6-4, 6-4.
But the most stunning upset of the day came saw another qualifier, Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, defeated No. 7 seed Alexander Zverev 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4, taking full advantage of the deflagration of the German’s serve. Zverev had already manifested some issues with his serve last week in Montreal, when he served 14 double faults during his victorious third-round match against Nikoloz Basilashvili, but today the full extent of the problem appeared when the German double faulted almost one in two second serves he tried to play during the two hours, 20 minutes match.
After Tsitsipas and Zverev, another representative of the “NextGen” was sent packing ahead of schedule: Canadian Denis Shapovalov was eliminated in straight sets (6-4 6-4) by Frenchman Lucas Pouille in a match played on Court 4 where stands were packed at capacity and fans had resorted to climbing to the top row of the nearby Court 3 stands to catch a glimpse of the action. Pouille led the match from start to finish, never allowing Shapovalov to find rhythm on his return and neutralizing very effectively the Canadian’s left-handed serve trajectories. The Frenchman broke very early in both sets and carried the lead to the end to reach the third round in Cincinnati, sending Shapovalov to a ranking position that most likely will prevent him from being seeded at the forthcoming US Open.
