Daniil Medvedev beats Mackenzie McDonald to advance to third round at Cincinnati

CINCINNATI: World No 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia continued his winning streak as he raced into the third round in the ATP event at the Cincinnati Masters by beating Mackenzie McDonald of the United States in straight sets.

Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece also advanced by beating Sebastian Korda of the United States 7-6(5), 6-3.

Medvedev, who had won his fourth ATP Masters 1000 title in Toronto on Sunday, was off to a good start here with a 6-2, 6-2 win against wildcard McDonald in a second-round encounter on Wednesday.

The Russian star has won 16 of his last 18 matches dating back to the start of the Mallorca Championships, a grass-court tournament he won in June. He dominated on serve against Mackenzie, winning 96 percent of his first-serve points to triumph after exactly one hour, said a report on the ATP Tour website.

Cincinnati holds special value for Medvedev as he had won his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title here in 2019.

"Mackenzie can play good. Everybody who is in the second round of a Masters [1000] can play good tennis, we all know this," Medvedev said in his on-court interview. "It's not easy to go from winning a tournament to another tournament in different conditions. You're tired physically, especially in the first matches because then you get into the tournament and it gets easier. I'm really happy that I managed to win quite easily. I was fighting a bit more for every point, trying to finish as early as possible," he was quoted as saying by the ATP.

The top seed will next play former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov, against whom he holds a 2-1 Head2Head advantage on ATP Tour. They most recently played in the semi-finals of the 2019 US Open, where Medvedev triumphed in straight sets.

Fellow Russian Andrey Rublev came back strongly after losing the first set to beat Marin Cilic of Croatia 5-7. 6-3. 6-1, hitting 11 aces and saving four of five break points he faced during the two hours and two minutes marathon.

Rublev, seeded fourth here, next faces Gael Monfils of France, who advanced to the third round with his 500th tour-level victory against 14th seed Alex de Minaur of Australia.

In other matches on Wednesday, local favourite John Isner battled past 11th seed Jannik Sinner 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-4 after two hours and 35 minutes; Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Karen Khachanov or Russia 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 in nearly three hours; Diego Schwartzman of Argentina overcame Frances Tiafoe of the United States 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 while Germany's Alexander Zverev quelled Lloyd Harris of South Africa 7-6(3), 6-2.