Ashleigh Barty and Alexander Zverev continue fine form to claim Cincinnati titles
Wimbledon winner Barty and Olympic gold medallist Zverev powered to victory in their respective finals
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Your support makes all the difference.Jil Teichmann’s remarkable run in Cincinnati was ended by a clinical Ashleigh Barty 6-3 6-1 in the women’s singles final.
The Swiss wildcard saw off Naomi Osaka, Olympic champion Belinda Bencic and Karolina Pliskova to face the Australian for the Western and Southern Open title.
But the world number one took her fifth tournament win of the season in an hour and 13 minutes.
Barty broke for 5-3 and served out for the first set, while the Swiss lost all four service games in the second set.
In the men’s singles final, Olympic gold medallist Alexander Zverev needed just an hour to take the 17th title of his career at the Western and Southern Open.
The German drew first blood in the final against Andrey Rublev, breaking the Russian’s service for a 1-0 and 3-0 lead in the first set.
Zverev, who battled to a three-set win over Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semis, polished off the first set inside 28 minutes, serving out for 6-2.
The second set started in a similar vein to the first, Zverev breaking Rublev’s serve in the first game, and the German broke again for a 4-1 lead.
Rublev got a break back for 5-3 in the second, but lost his serve for the third time in the set as he went down 6-3.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray is through to the next round of the Winston-Salem Open after defeating lucky loser Noah Rubin 6-2 6-0.
Murray, a wildcard at the tournament in North Carolina, was due to face Nick Kyrgios in the first round but the Australian withdrew on Sunday evening citing a left knee injury.
American Rubin stepped in but the Brit was too strong and will now face Frances Tiafoe in the next round.
There were also wins for Gilles Simon, Marcos Giron, Mikael Ymer, Soonwoo Kwon and Thiago Monteiro.
Elsewhere, at the Tennis in the Land tournament in Cleveland, Irina Begu knocked out third seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (3) 6-3 in the first round, and Caty McNally and Nadia Podoroska also won.
At the Chicago Women’s Open, there were wins for eighth seed Marta Kostyuk as well as Kaia Kanepi, Jasmine Paolini and Francoise Abanda, while fourth seed Tamara Zidansek went down to Varvara Gracheva 6-3 1-6 6-2.
PA
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