Ashleigh Barty and Alexander Zverev win 2021 Cincinnati Open

Ashleigh Barty (Rob Keating, Wikimedia Commons)

In a pair of completely dominating performances on Sunday, Australia’s Ashleigh Barty and Germany’s Alexander Zverev each won the 2021 Cincinnati Open. Barty defeated Jill Teichmann of Switzerland 6-3, 6-1 on the women’s side, while Zverev defeated Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-2, 6-3 on the men’s side. In an interesting twist, Barty and Zverev were both broken in their service game to win the match, and then broke their opponents right back to win the titles.

Barty had eight aces, compared to Teichmann’s two. She also won 86% of her first serve points, and broke Teichmann five times, while only was broken once. In addition to beating Teichmann in Cincinnati, Barty also defeated Heather Watson of Great Britain in the second round, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the third round, 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals, and three-time grand slam champion Angelique Kerber of Germany in the semifinals.

This was Barty’s second WTA 1000 series victory in the United States in 2021. She also won the 2021 Miami Open over 2019 United States Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada back in April.

Zverev meanwhile dominated Rublev when it came to second serve points won. Zverev won 67% of his second serve points, while Rublev only won 9% of his second serve points. That was the major reason why the Russian was broken five times.

In addition to beating Rublev in the final, Zverev beat Lloyd Harris of South Africa in the second round, Guido Pella of Argentina in the third round, Casper Ruud of Norway in the quarterfinals, and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the semifinals. This was also the second Masters 1000 title for Zverev in 2021. He previously won the Madrid Open in May. 

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