Western & Southern Open: Li comes back from first set bagel to defeat Linette

American Ann Li won against Pole Magda Linette 0-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 to reach the second round of the Western & Southern Open at the Linder Tennis Family Center in Cincinnati on Tuesday evening.

The world No 192, who had to play qualifying to make the Western & Southern main draw, couldn’t have had a worse start to the match against Linette. In the blink of an eye she was down one set to love, losing the opening stanza without winning a single game.

However, the qualifier showed some real tenacity, digging in and taking the second set to a tiebreak, which she won 7-5. Having gained some confidence in her game, Li opened the shoulders and ran away with the deciding set, winning 6-2 to book a second-round clash against world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka next.

Cincinnati WTA 1000, other round of 64 results (Linder Tennis Family Center, hard, USD 2.788.468, most recent results first):

• Madison Keys vs. Elise Mertens
• Linda Noskova vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Sorana Cirstea: tuesday
• Jennifer Brady vs. Donna Vekic: tuesday
• Cristina Bucsa vs. Belinda Bencic: tuesday
• Danielle Collins (WC) beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: 6-3, 6-1
• Marketa Vondrousova (10) beat Katerina Siniakova: 7-5, 6-4
• Karolina Muchova beat Beatriz Haddad Maia (12): 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-4
• Marie Bouzkova beat Irina-Camelia Begu: 6-2, 6-2
• Petra Martic beat Emma Navarro (Q): 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
• Qinwen Zheng beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Q): 6-1, 6-4
• Mayar Sherif beat Xiyu Wang (Q): 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (5)
• Victoria Azarenka beat Barbora Krejcikova (11): 6-3, 7-5
• Varvara Gracheva (LL) beat Caroline Wozniacki (WC): 6-4, 6-4
• Daria Kasatkina (14) beat Peyton Stearns (WC): 6-2, 6-1
• Martina Trevisan (Q) beat Bernarda Pera: 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
• Petra Kvitova (9) beat Anna Blinkova: 7-6 (2), 6-0
• Jelena Ostapenko beat Karolina Pliskova: 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Anhelina Kalinina beat Lin Zhu: 6-3, 7-5
• Venus Williams (WC) beat Veronika Kudermetova (16): 6-4, 7-5
• Anastasia Potapova beat Celine Naef (WC): 1-6, 6-4, 7-5
• Jasmine Paolini (Q) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-2, 6-1
• Sloane Stephens beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 7-5, 6-2