Wednesday at Cincinnati was an incredible day of tennis. There really is no other way to state this. From start to finish, this has been a day of nonstop action, drama, and—most importantly—high-quality tennis. 

The day started out with Andy Murray taking care of business against Joao Sousa. He turned his ankle early in the first set, but it seemed not to bother him, and he took the match with relative ease. While he was doing that, though, upsets were brewing on neighboring Courts 3, 9, and Grandstand. 

Grandstand provided the biggest upset of the tournament so far (in terms of seeding) with Elina Svitolina taking out Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. Svitolina shocked Kvitova early with aggressive play and frustrated her with some brilliant winners. Kvitova found her form early in the second set, but she couldn’t hold it en route to a 2-6 6-7 loss.

On Court 3, Jerzy Janowicz was displaying some of the form that took him to a Wimbledon semifinal last year. He was hitting huge and kept his number of unforced errors low. Janowicz did hit seven double faults, but his high-risk second-serve tactics paid off today, for he won 72% of the second serves that he put in play. Grigor Dimitrov played well for most of the match as well, keeping it a tight affair throughout. He forced a final set with some brilliant tennis towards the tend of the second set. Dimitrov got careless, though, and was broken early in the third. Janowicz managed to hold on to that break and serve it out in front of a stadium that was quite possibly over its capacity of 4,000  fans.

Meanwhile, across the way on Court 9, Yen-Hsun Lu was playing his best match since Wimbledon 2010. Lu’s ranking has risen to the top 50, although we can’t really know his full potential because he prefers to stay close to home and play Challengers rather than go out on tour for the full year. Lu played solid defense and forced Berdych to hit plenty of extra shots. Berdych was not at his absolute best, and Lu managed to force enough errors from the big Czech to win the match. He kept balls deep and played his down-the-line shots beautifully to earn this win. Lu has Fabio Fognini up next, which provides a real chance for a deep run here.

Those were the three most notable results from the day, although it was far from the end of the excitement. Serena Williams and Sam Stosur played a brilliant match, with Serena winning in two tiebreak sets. The match was full of extended rallies and strong holds, with both tiebreaks tense, gripping affairs. Each player showed a bit of nerves at inopportune times, but that should not detract from the overall quality of the match.

Both women were complimentary of each other after this match. Stosur said that she was “really pleased with the way I played” and that Serena “came up with some really great stuff when it really counted.” Serena, similarly, said that Sam “just did everything really well” and that she is “just happy to get through this match.” Serena had high praise for Stosur overall, pointing out that “this is why she was able to win a Grand Slam because she played like that today.” 

Seeds Sloane Stephens, John Isner, Tommy Robredo, Fabio Fognini, and Marin Cilic all got through their matches in straight sets. None of those were easy, though, and every one of those matches was  tight at times and produced a lot of quality tennis. Sara Errani, on the other hand, was not as fortunate, falling to Sabine Lisicki in a third-set tiebreak.

Two late-afternoon thrillers unfolded simultaneously. Roger Federer was forced into a battle with Vasek Pospisil, who took the second set before fading as fatigue set in a bit in the third. Meanwhile, David Ferrer and Philipp Kohlschreiber were locked in a tight match on Court 9. Kohlschreiber took the first set in a tiebsaving 2 match points in the process.reak and dominated early in the second set, but he was unable to serve out the match. Ferrer forced a tiebreak that he eventually won and then took the third set in a tiebreak as well to move on, having saved two match points. It was a strong display of tennis, and Ferrer looks very dangerous moving forward.

This remarkable day of tennis was only the second round of this tournament. Because of the high requirements to even gain entry, it can feature matches between top-20 or top-30 players in this early round. Murray weighed in on that topic this morning, saying, “I think if I was coming to watch as a fan, coming to the Wednesday of a Masters Series, especially a combined one, is pretty much the best ticket you can get really.” He was a bit distracted at the end of his press conference, for he was engrossed in watching the first-set tiebreak between Serena and Stosur. But maybe that just highlights his point.

Later on Court 9, overstuffed with a raucous crowd including everyone who tried to stay as late as they could from the day session, American Steve Johnson upset a chronically out-of-sorts Ernests Gulbis in straight sets.