Milestone win for Federer

Roger Federer survived an opening-match fright by outlasting Canada’s Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-2 on Wednesday to claim his 300th Masters Series win and reach the third round of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.

Back in action after losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto on Sunday, third-ranked Federer appeared sluggish at times as he struggled to tame the 46th-ranked Canadian. With the victory, the second seeded Swiss, a five-time champion on the Cincinnati hard courts, becomes the first player to reach 300 wins in the ATP Tour’s elite Masters 1000 events.

The day featured a pair of early upsets with Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun shocking fourth seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 while Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz knocked off Bulgarian seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

In evening matches, Frenchman Gael Monfils sent 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut home with a dominant 6-4, 6-1 win in just under an hour.

The world number 23 gave his 18th ranked opponent a hard-court lesson, winning 80 percent of his first serves on his way to victory, setting up a date with Federer in the third round.

Serena grinds

World number one Serena Williams won a tense battle of US Open champions by beating Australia's Samantha Stosur 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (9-7) on Wednesday to reach the third round of the women’s competition.

After last week's loss to sister Venus in the Montreal semifinals, Serena faced another familiar foe in Stosur, who had beaten her in straight sets in the 2011 US Open final.

In a tight contest that did not feature a single break by either player, Serena needed nearly two hours to advance to the last 16. Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, seeded seventh, was ousted by Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Russian winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to make it two from two in her career against Bouchard.

Paes-Stepanek out

Fifth seeds Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek were eliminated in the men’s doubles competition following their 1-6, 6-4, 8-10 defeat against Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock.
India’s challenge is still alive in the women’s tournament as Sania Mirza and Cara Black have got a bye in the first round.