Xinyu Wang vs Donna Vekic — R64 — Cincinnati Open

The first serve drew the line. Wang won 77 percent of her first-serve points against 63 for Vekic, and the middle set is where the gap turned punitive, the 31st seed winning 46 percent behind her own first ball while the Shenzhen native, who lives on first-strike tennis, held at 70. The break count flipped after that. The third turned on one game, with Wang breaking in game 9 for 5-4 and holding on through eight double faults, four of those in the closing set. It is her first win over Vekic on record, the Croatian having taken their only previous meeting at Dubai in 2024. Two hours and 11 minutes later, the 24-year-old is into the Round of 32.