Western & Southern Open: Krueger upsets 16th seed Vekic to reach second round
The American will face the winner of the match between Russian Diana Shnaider and Chinese Shuai Zhang in the next round
American qualifier Ashlyn Krueger advanced to the second round of the Western & Southern Open by beating Croat Donna Vekic, the No 16 seed and recent Olympic silver medallist in women’s singles, 5-7, 7-6 (4), 6-2 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
Krueger, who beat former world No 1 Naomi Osaka in the qualifying rounds and is currently ranked No 65, will face the winner of the match between Russian Diana Shnaider and Chinese Shuai Zhang next.
The win continues a good run of form for the American, who qualified and reached the third round in Toronto last week. This was the first time that Krueger was playing in Cincinnati, a tournament where she came to watch as a spectator when she was just 12 years old.
“I came here with my family when I was 12, it’s the only pro tournament I’ve ever been to — twice,” Krueger said. “So to play here on this court, I remember watching from the stands.”
Cincinnati WTA 1000, other first-round matches (Lindner Family Tennis Center, hard, USD 3,211,715):
- Daria Kasatkina (9) beat Ekaterina Alexandrova: 6-4, 6-2
- Lulu Sun (Q) beat Linda Noskova: 6-4, 7-6 (4)
- Marta Kostyuk (15) beat Elise Mertens: 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
- Karolina Pliskova beat Viktoriya Tomova: 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3)
- Varvara Gracheva (Q) beat Ajla Tomljanovic: 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5)
- Caroline Wozniacki vs. Anhelina Kalinina
- Marie Bouzkova vs. Magdalena Frech
- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
- Emma Navarro vs. Mirra Andreeva
- Karolina Muchova vs. Dayana Yastremska
- Liudmila Samsonova vs. Xinyu Wang
- Leylah Fernandez vs. Yue Yuan
- Caroline Dolehide vs. Taylor Townsend
- Lucia Bronzetti vs. Victoria Azarenka
- Peyton Stearns vs. Paula Badosa
- Anna Kalinskaya vs. Katerina Siniakova
- Diana Shnaider vs. Shuai Zhang
- Elina Avanesyan vs. Bianca Andreescu
- Harriet Dart vs. Yulia Putintseva
- Anastasia Potapova vs. Clara Burel
- Katie Boulter vs. Magda Linette
- Elina Svitolina vs. Yafan Wang
- Robin Montgomery vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto