Tennis. Cincinnati: Caroline Garcia and Daniil Medvedev out, Varvara Gracheva and Carlos Alcaraz through to the third round

The beautiful story between WTA 1000 player Caroline Garcia from Cincinnati came to an end on Sunday evening, in the ^second round of the American tournament. Three years after winning her title in Ohio and just a few weeks before her retirement from the sport , the Lyonnaise was eliminated by the Czech Karolina Muchova 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/0).

On hiatus since Roland-Garros, she returned to winning ways against Britain's Sonay Kartal in the ^first round in Cincinnati, a tournament where she had achieved the feat of lifting the trophy after qualifying in 2022. On Sunday, she was unable to resist the 28-year-old Czech, ranked ^14th in the world, losing in both tie-breaks. "For a third match in five months, it's rather positive in view of the US Open, which remains the real objective," said the Frenchwoman in comments reported by L'Équipe, two weeks before the start of the last Grand Slam tournament of the year.

Even the pain in his thigh, which required a call to the physiotherapist at the start of the second set, doesn't seem to worry him: "After a few days of rest and some treatment, it will pass quickly. In any case, when you haven't played much, you know things are going to happen."

The last French player in the women's draw, Varvara Gracheva (25 years old, ^103rd ) managed to win against the American Sofia Kenin (26 years old, ^29th ) 6-7 (7/9), 6-3, 6-3 and will face Muchova in the ^3rd round. After the match, the Frenchwoman revealed that she had changed coaches in recent days. A coach whose last name she "can't say" because she doesn't know him... But whose method already seems to be bearing fruit.

In the men's draw, some seeded players have already left the Masters 1000. Australian Alex de Minaur, world ^number 8, was eliminated in his first match in the ^second round by local player Reilly Opelka 7-6 (8/6), 6-4. Later in the day, Russian Daniil Medvedev (29 years old, ^15th ), former world number 1 and winner of the tournament in 2019, was dominated by Australian Adam Walton (26 years old, ^85th ) 6-7 (0/7), 6-4, 6-1.

World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz needed three sets to defeat Bosnian Damir Dzumhur (6-1, 2-6, 6-3) in his opening match. The Spaniard, who won Roland Garros earlier this year and was a finalist in Ohio in 2023, had a difficult second set before recovering. The Spaniard had not played since the Wimbledon final in mid-July, losing to world No. 1 Jannik Sinner .

On the French side, Arthur Cazaux was beaten by the American Jenson Brooksby (7-5, 6-1) while Valentin Royer (24 years old, ^104th ) put up a good fight, but ended up giving in to the Russian Karen Khachanov (29 years old, ^12th ), finalist of the Masters 1000 in Toronto on Thursday and winner 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).