Serena Williams' hopes of claim a third consecutive title were smashed when she withdrew from the Western Southern Open with toe damage. Williams aggravated the injury in her first round win over Lucie Hradecka and pull out of her listed match against 10th seed Samantha Stosur, who superior to round three.
Meanwhile world number one Caroline Wozniacki was stunned by US wild card and world number 76 Christina McHale, who took three notes shy of two hours to defeat the Dane 6-4 7-5. The top players in the men's draw had an easier time of things, number one seed Novak Djokovic easing past second-round adversary Ryan Harrison 6-2 6-4 and number two Rafael Nadal also easing to a 6-4 7-5 win over Julien Benneteau to help erase memories of his shock loss to Ivan Dodig in Montreal last week.
Fourth seed Andy Murray record his first win since Wimbledon with a 6-1 6-4 defeat of an off-colour David Nalbandian, while fifth seed David Ferrer was taken to three sets before considering off Grigor Dimitrov 4-6 6-1 7-5. Dodig was forced to retire when he trail 4-6 6-3 4-0 to sixth seed Gael Monfils, while other seeded winners included Mardy Fish, Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Almagro.
Qualifier Radek Stepanek sustained his fine recent form by beating Andrey Golubev in straight sets and there were also wins for Philipp Kohlschreiber, Alex Bogomolov Jr and Fernando Verdasco. Elsewhere in the women's rivalry second seed Vera Zvonareva eased past fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-3 6-0.
Jelena Jankovic, Francesca Schiavone, Andrea Petkovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Shuai Peng were the other seeded players to make it through. Ana Ivanovic, the 15th seed, went down in straight sets to Nadia Petrova and 17th seed Yanina Wickmayer was beaten by Petra Martic. Daniela Hantuchova and Shahar Peer also progressed with straight sets conquest over Flavia Pennetta and Pauline Parmentier, correspondingly.