Western & Southern Open: Kasatkina advances to third round, may face Sabalenka next

Russian Daria Kasatkina, the No 14 seed, beat French lucky loser Varvara Gracheva 6-3, 6-1 to move into the third round of the Western & Southern Open at the Linder Tennis Family Center in Cincinnati on Wednesday evening.

Kasatkina, ranked No 13, will face the winner of the match between American qualifier Ann Li and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, next.

Ahead of her victory, the Russian won against American wildcard Peyton Stearns (6-2, 6-1).

Gracheva, ranked No 45, defeated Dane wildcard Caroline Wozniacki (6-4, 6-4) in the previous round of the Cincy Open.

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

• Mayar Sherif vs. Coco Gauff
• Ann Li vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Donna Vekic vs. Victoria Azarenka
• Elise Mertens vs. Marie Bouzkova
• Elena Rybakina vs. Jelena Ostapenko
• Jasmine Paolini vs. Cristina Bucsa
• Petra Kvitova vs. Linda Noskova
• Qinwen Zheng vs. Venus Williams
• Petra Martic vs. Karolina Muchova
• Maria Sakkari vs. Sorana Cirstea
• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Anastasia Potapova
• Iga Swiatek vs. Danielle Collins
• Martina Trevisan vs. Jessica Pegula: wednesday
• Sloane Stephens beat Caroline Garcia (6): 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Ons Jabeur (5) beat Anhelina Kalinina: 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (2)