Sabalenka makes strong start at Western & Southern Open

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the No 3 seed, defeated Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-3, 6-4 to reach the last 16 of the Western & Southern Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati on Thursday.

Sabalenka, ranked No 3, will play Ukrainian Elina Svitolina next.

Cocciaretto, ranked No 66, won against American qualifier Robin Montgomery (7-5, 4-6, 6-3) in the previous round of the Cincy Open.

Cincinnati WTA 1000, other second-round results (Lindner Family Tennis Center, hard, USD 3.211.715, most recent results first):

• Jessica Pegula vs. Karolina Muchova
• Qinwen Zheng vs. Magdalena Frech
• Caroline Wozniacki vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Jasmine Paolini
• Mirra Andreeva vs. Karolina Pliskova
• Anna Kalinskaya vs. Paula Badosa
• Yulia Putintseva vs. Coco Gauff
• Taylor Townsend vs. Daria Kasatkina: thursday
• Liudmila Samsonova vs. Magda Linette: thursday
• Diana Shnaider beat Ashlyn Krueger (Q): 7-5, 6-0
• Leylah Fernandez beat Elena Rybakina (4): 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4
• Elina Avanesyan (LL) beat Jelena Ostapenko (8): 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
• Elina Svitolina beat Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (LL): 6-4, 6-1
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Varvara Gracheva (Q): 6-0, 6-7 (8), 6-2
• Marta Kostyuk (15) beat Lulu Sun (Q): 6-3, 7-5