THE Western and Southern Open Round of 16 saw some hug results with all remaining players seeded, bar one in Frenchman Benoit Paire.

It was another successful day for Russia, as top seed Daniil Medvedev downed Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 6-3 and fourth seed Andrey Rublev joined him on the winners list with a tight 7-6(2) 7-6(5) victory over Gael Monfils. Medvedev is looking to complete the Cincinnati-Toronto double of back-to-back Masters 1000 titles following his National Bank Open title last week.

”It was tough, especially in the second set,” Medvedev said post-match. “I had four break points before I broke him. I knew I had to continue to push him. Grigor is an amazing player, but a little bit worse on the backhand, and I like when people slice, so that was a tactic to try to put pressure on him there. Of course, [I] mixed it up with the forehand sometimes and it seemed to work really well.

“What makes it tough [on the Cincinnati-Toronto double], it is two weeks in a row against the best players in the world. I am still young, healthy and feeling 100 per cent, so that is why I want to try and do it.”

Medvedev needed just 90 minutes to clinch victory over Dimitrov, breaking the Bulgarian three times and firing off seven aces. For Rublev, victory required an 87 per cent win rate off his first serve, as he worked Monfils hard and caused the Frenchman to call a couple of medical pauses in the heat and humidity of Cincinnati.

“It was super tough. It was really humid,” Rublev said. “Gael was running super fast and it’s impossible to play short rallies with him. “If you try to shoot every ball you will miss most of them and the match will be over in half an hour. “So you need to take your time, stay in the rally and wait for the right moment.”

Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and third seed Alexander Zverev also joined the Russian duo on the winners list, although fifth seed Matteo Berrettini could not continue the trend, ousted by 12th seed Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. Auger-Aliassime dominated their clash, taking out the 6-3 6-4 victory in one hour and 34 minutes in the final match of the day. The Canadian fired seven aces to the Italian’s four, and despite hitting more double faults (5-2) Auger Aliassime dominated on serve with an 88 per cent win rate off his first serve, not needing to rely on his second serve.

Tsitsipas took part in one of just two three setters for the day, overcoming Lorenzo Sonego 5-7 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 25 minutes after the Italian fired out of the blocks Tsitsipas weathered the world number 27’s 35 winners, hitting 24 winners for 15 unforced errors in response. Comparatively, Zverev needed just 73 minutes to down Argentinian Guido Pella 6-2 6-3.

“He was going for every single shot and his footwork was close to unbelievable,” Tsitsipas said. “He can do damage against high-ranked players. Things got really difficult in a few moments but I stayed there and waited for the opportunity to present itself.”

In other games, seventh seed Pablo Carreno Busta overcame ninth seed Pole Hubert Hurkacz in another 7-6(6) 7-6(3) encounter fraught with tiebreakers, while eighth seed Casper Ruud won 91 per cent of his first serve points to oust 10th seed Argentinian Diego Schwartzman 6-4 6-3 and Paire knocked out hard-hitting John Isner from contention, hitting 16 aces to Isner’s 18 to eventually take down the American 7-6(1) 6-7(2) 6-1.

WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[1] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) defeated Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 6-3 6-3
[2] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) defeated Lorenzo Sonego (ITA) 5-7 6-3 6-4
[3] Alexander Zverev (GER) defeated Guido Pella (ARG) 6-2 6-3
[4] Andrey Rublev (RUS) defeated Gael Monfis (FRA) 7-6 7-6
[12] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) defeated [5] Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 6-4 6-3
[7] Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) defeated [9] Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 7-6 7-6
[8] Casper Ruud (NOR) defeated [10] Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 6-4 6-3
Benoit Paire (FRA) defeated John Isner (USA) 7-6 6-7 6-1

Picture credit: Getty Images