Nadal, the 2013 champion in Cincinnati, said the injury was still causing him problems, but his form has nonetheless been decent.
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Second seed Wawrinka slumped to a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Grigor Dimitrov as the Bulgarian, fighting his way back after a poor season, reached the Cincinnati quarter-finals for the fourth time.
After about an 80-minute rain delay, Murray, battling a head cold he picked up in Rio, overcame an early break and some sluggishness with his shoulder to beat Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-2 and avenge his US Open loss to the South African. Tied 3-3 in the second set, Wawrinka committed two unforced forehand errors and Dimitrov got the break he needed to take control.
Murray won the hardcourt event in 2008 and 2011 and has reached the quarter-finals in eight of his previous 11 appearances in Cincinnati.
“He started the match very well, and I thought it was going to be very different”, Coric said.
Both players looking sluggish as they returned to the ATP Tour following their Olympic campaigns, while Nadal is still recovering from a lengthy layoff due to a wrist injury as well. “Now the most important thing is to enjoy and be happy, and I am confident I can win a Grand Slam title in the future.” .
“I thought that I played the game well”.
Kerber overcame a sloppy first set and beat Carla Suarez Navarro 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
It was smooth sailing for fourth seed Milos Raonic though as he battled past Japanese qualifier Yuichi Sugita 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.
In the other round matches, fourth-seeded Canadian’s Milos Raonic won over John Isner from United States 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) fifth-seeded Japan’s Kei Nishikori kicked down the Mikhail Youzhny of Russian Federation 6-3, 6-2, the sixth-seeded the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych won over the Spanish, Marcel Granllers with 6-3, 7-6 (4) and in seventh-seeded France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won over Unites States’ Reilly Opelka with 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3). Williams has been in the top spot for 183 consecutive weeks. “Still, it’s for me still a long, long way to get there”.
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Steve Johnson replaced John Isner as the top-ranked American thanks to a 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) upset of French seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The match lasted little more than an hour. The tournament had 39 singles matches scheduled for Wednesday, making up for weather delays over the first two full days of play.
