Western & Southern Open: Azarenka beats Krejcikova to make second round in battle of major champions

Belarusian Victoria Azarenka reached the first round of the Western & Southern Open by beating No 11 seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 7-5 at the Linder Tennis Family Center in Cincinnati.

Azarenka, ranked No 18, will face the winner of the match between American Jennifer Brady and Croat Donna Vekic 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
• Jennifer Brady vs. Donna Vekic
• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Sorana Cirstea
• Cristina Bucsa vs. Belinda Bencic
• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Katerina Siniakova
• Danielle Collins vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
• Magda Linette vs. Ann Li
• Karolina Muchova vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Marie Bouzkova
• Petra Martic vs. Emma Navarro: tuesday
• Qinwen Zheng beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Q): 6-1, 6-4
• Xiyu Wang vs. Mayar Sherif: tuesday
• 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