Cincinnati: Top seed Alexander Zverev battled into the fourth round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters on Monday while Serena and Venus Williams lost in their first doubles match together in four years. German star Zverev, who won Roland Garros and finished Wimbledon runner-up this year, won his ATP season-best 46th match of the campaign by defeating Terrance Atmane 7-6(4), 7-6(6).
Zverev finished off the Frenchman, a 2025 Cincinnati semifinalist, with a sizzling backhand down the line.
The Williams sisters, with 14 Grand Slam titles and three Olympic gold medals together, were side-by-side for the first time since the 2022 US Open but lost to American Payton Stearns and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 1-6, 10-8.
“It was fun and special. We kicked off a little rust,” Serena Williams said. “I didn’t come here to win this tournament. It’s about having fun and I did want to do the best I could.”
The siblings each lost serve once in the first set and lost six of the final seven games, but dominated the second set and rallied from 8-2 down in the 10-point tie-breaker third set only to fall on a Venus double fault.
Men’s fifth seed Alex de Minaur battled through multiple rain interruptions to defeat Arthur Fery 7-5, 7-6 (7/3). The Australian was up a set and 5-1 after a 30-minute stoppage before Wimbledon semi-finalist Fery caught fire, but he took the tie-break to advance despite 29 unforced errors.
He next faces France’s Arthur Fils, who dumped Czech ninth seed Jiri Lehecka 6-1, 6-7 (9), 6-3.
Spanish teen Rafael Jodar dominated Alejandro Tabilo of Chile 6-2, 6-1 and next faces Roland Garros finalist Flavio Cobolli.
The Italian rallied from a break down in the third set to beat Alexander Blockx 7-5, 4-6, 7-5.
Argentine Thiago Tirante, who ousted Novak Djokovic in the second round, defeated Spain’s Martin Landaluce 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4).
Moreover, 13th Andrey Rublev beat Nuno Borges 6-3 6-4. Joao Fonseca got walkover against Christopher O'Connell. Agencies
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