Cincinnati Masters: Purcell stays hot on hard courts, into second round

Australian qualifier Max Purcell reached the second round of the Cincinnati Masters by beating South African Lloyd Harris 6-4, 6-4 at the Linder Tennis Family Center on Tuesday night.

Having upset world No 12 Felix Auger-Aliassime in Toronto last week and taken former world No 1 Andy Murray to a third set, Purcell has continued his strong hard-court form in Cincinnati. The Aussie struck 16 winners to just four unforced errors, needing only an hour and a quarter to get past No 182 ranked Harris.

Purcell, ranked No 70, will face No 5 seed Casper Ruud next. Is the stage set for another upset?

Cincinnati Masters, other first-round results (Linder Tennis Family Center, hard, USD 6.600.000, most recent results first):

• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Yannick Hanfmann
• Alex De Minaur vs. J.J. Wolf
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis: tuesday
• Lorenzo Sonego beat Alexander Shevchenko (Q): 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
• Gael Monfils beat Cameron Norrie (13): 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
• Lorenzo Musetti beat Daniel Evans: 6-4, 6-3
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 6-3, 6-3
• Alexander Zverev (16) beat Grigor Dimitrov: 6-2, 6-2
• Stan Wawrinka (WC) beat Brandon Nakashima (WC): 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3
• Borna Coric (15) beat Sebastian Korda: 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Alexei Popyrin (LL) beat Daniel Altmaier (LL): 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4
• Taylor Fritz (9) beat Jiri Lehecka: 7-6 (14), 6-2
• Tommy Paul (14) beat Miomir Kecmanovic: 7-5, 7-6 (2)
• Ugo Humbert beat Arthur Fils (Q): 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
• Jordan Thompson (Q) beat John Isner (WC): 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2)
• Dusan Lajovic (Q) beat Francisco Cerundolo: 6-3, 6-4
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Corentin Moutet (Q): 6-4, 6-2
• Nicolas Jarry beat Roman Safiullin: 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Felix Auger-Aliassime (12) beat Matteo Berrettini: 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
• Frances Tiafoe (10) beat Tallon Griekspoor: 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-4
• Yoshihito Nishioka beat Gregoire Barrere: 6-4, 7-5
• Adrian Mannarino beat Richard Gasquet: 6-4, 6-3
• Ben Shelton beat Christopher Eubanks: 5-7, 6-4, 6-4