Van de Zandschulp edges Shevchenko 6-4 6-4 in Cincinnati opener

Botic van de Zandschulp made a tidy start to the Cincinnati Masters 1000, seeing off Alexandr Shevchenko 6-4 6-4 in the round of 128 without ever surrendering control of a match decided by narrow margins in both sets. The Dutchman's first delivery was the difference: he landed 61.3 percent of them and won 86.8 percent of those points, against 53.5 percent and 71.7 percent for Shevchenko. Behind the second ball the pair were close, 41.7 percent to 40.0, and van de Zandschulp's five double faults were one fewer than his opponent's six, while nine aces from the Kazakh could not offset the gap. The win put him into the second round.