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CINCINNATI: Defending champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka booked quarterfinal berths at the rain-hit ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Wednesday with straight-set wins.

Sinner shrugged off a mid-match rain interruption lasting nearly three hours as he advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Adrian Mannarino.

He next faces Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, who beat Benjamin Bonzi of France 6-4, 6-3.

Sabalenka, taken to three sets in her previous match with Emma Raducanu, defeated Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-1, 7-5, winning a season-leading 50th match of 2025 and reaching her 29th career last-eight at the elite 1000 level.

Sabalenka had to work after surrendering a second-set break, but she broke Bouzas Maneiro in the final game to seal the victory.

“The key was to focus and put as much pressure as possible on her serve,” Sabalenka said. “I was up a break, made a couple of mistakes and she broke me back.

“I’m glad to win in straight sets — I didn’t want to stay for three hours.”

World No. 1 Sinner, playing his first tournament since lifting the trophy at Wimbledon, notched his 24th consecutive hardcourt match win to gain his fifth quarterfinal of the season.

The victory required patience, with the Italian who turns 24 on Saturday passing some of the afternoon weather pause by playing cards with his team.

Sinner had won the first set and they were on serve in the second when they returned, but Frenchman’s tricky game took a toll as Sinner was broken while trying to serve out the match.

The second set instead went to a tiebreak, with the Italian firing his 11th and 12th aces to clinch victory.

“He’s a very difficult opponent, different from the other players,” Sinner said. “He can read the opponent well.

“It was a struggle to close it out, but I’m happy to be in the quarterfinals.”

Earlier former champion Alexander Zverev polished off a weather-hit third-round victory, winning the final four points of a 6-4, 6-4 win over Brandon Nakashima.

The entire one-game exercise, with 2021 Cincy winner Zverev leading 6-4, 5-4 when play resumed, took less than two minutes, with the third seed set for a later fourth-round encounter against Toronto finalist Karen Khachanov.

Fifth seed Ben Shelton, last week’s Toronto winner, reached the fourth round with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, victory over Roberto Bautista Agut in a match rescheduled from Tuesday.

Women’s third seed Iga Swiatek and men’s seventh seed Holger Rune both booked quarterfinal berths before afternoon showers struck.

Wimbledon champion Swiatek beat Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-3, overcoming 33 unforced errors in a 95-minute victory.

“I wanted to be more solid than in my last match,” Swiatek said. “I’m happy with the level of my focus and the consistency.”

Rune advanced as 2024 finalist Frances Tiafoe retired with lower back pain with Denmark’s Rune up 6-4, 3-1.

The match was a re-run of a quarterfinal here a year ago, won by the American who went on to fall to Sinner in the final.

Tiafoe received treatment on his back but it didn’t seem to help as Rune gained control.

The American walked dejectedly off court, carrying only a pair of shoes while an official carted away his massive tennis bag.

Rune, bothered this season by his own injury worries, secured his 100th career hard-court win and his first defeat of a top 20 opponent since he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the Barcelona final in April.

In another match interrupted on Tuesday, Magda Linette reached the fourth round at Cincinnati for the first time with a 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-3 upset of fourth-seeded American Jessica Pegula.

JERUSALEM: New Israeli legislation regulating foreign aid groups has been increasingly used to deny their requests to bring supplies into Gaza, according to a joint letter signed by more than 100 groups published Thursday.
Ties between foreign-backed aid groups and the Israeli government have long been beset by tensions, with officials often complaining the organizations are biased.
The rocky relations have only gotten more strained in the wake of Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023.
“Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organizations are ‘not authorized to deliver aid’,” the joint statement reads.
According to the letter, whose signatories include Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), at least 60 requests to bring aid into Gaza were rejected in July alone.
In March, Israel’s government approved a new set of rules for foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with Palestinians.
The law updates the framework for how aid groups must register to maintain their status within Israel, along with provisions that outline how their applications can be denied or registration revoked.
Registration can be rejected if Israeli authorities deem that a group denies the democratic character of Israel or “promotes delegitimization campaigns” against the country.
“Unfortunately, many aid organizations serve as a cover for hostile and sometimes violent activity,” Israel’s Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli told AFP.
“Organizations that have no connection to hostile or violent activity and no ties to the boycott movement will be granted permission to operate,” added Chikli, whose ministry directed an effort to produce the new guideline.
Aid groups say, however, that the new rules are leaving Gazans without help.
“Our mandate is to save lives, but due to the registration restrictions civilians are being left without the food, medicine and protection they urgently need,” said Jolien Veldwijk, director of the charity CARE in the Palestinian territories.
Veldwijk said that CARE has not been able to deliver any aid to Gaza since Israel imposed a full blockade on the Palestinian territory in March, despite partially easing it in May.
Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid entering the Strip, and since May, the government has relied on the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to manage food distribution centers.
According to Gaza’s civil defense agency, its operations have been frequently marred by chaos as thousands of Gazans have scrambled each day to approach its hubs, where some have been shot, including by Israeli soldiers.