In the lore of Ohio sports, there is one name that towers above all else. Cincinnati and Cleveland both have professional teams in major sports (a combined five between them) and Columbus has an NHL team. But there is one team that nothing else can reach. The biggest name in Ohio sports—to Ohioans—is not the Cleveland Browns or the Cincinnati Reds.  It isn’t even Lebron James. The pinnacle of the Ohio sports world is The Ohio State University.

The Ohio State Buckeyes field teams in nearly every single sport the NCAA recognizes, including tennis. Ohio State does not yet have any notable alumni at the professional level, although Blaz Rola and Chase Buchanan are two names who can be on the radar within a few years.

In terms of Ohio sports culture, the Western and Southern Open draws a very different crowd than much of Ohio sports. Intense fans of other sports here aren’t as interested in tennis and vice versa. Still, as Chase Buchanan became the first former Buckeye to compete in the main draw here, you could see the sports cultures in Cincinnati collide. During Buchanan’s thrilling match against Joao Sousa, shouts of “Go Buckeyes” and their iconic “OH-IO” chant could be heard through the crowd. It was a gripping, back-and-forth match that went to tiebreaks in the final two sets. Buchanan seemed to struggle with minor cramps early in the first and third sets but worked through them.

The matchup of these two unheralded men was relegated to Court 9, which at maximum capacity can probably fit around 1,500  people. The court was close to full with a very pro-Ohio crowd cheering Buchanan on, and additional people lined up on the edge of Court 10 to look over the fence at the match. Unfortunately for the crowd, Buchanan could not hold onto his leads late in the third set and in the tiebreak, and he lost the match 7-5 6-7 6-7. The concept of the match, though, was a fascinating display of two very disparate sports cultures meeting in Ohio. It can only lead us to wonder what will happen if Rola, Buchanan, or another Buckeye can someday make a real run here.

The match itself was slightly marred by an intense dispute between Sousa and the chair umpire, in which a supervisor had to be called. Sousa hit an approach shot that seemed to land on the sideline. The line judge called it out and immediately corrected herself. The umpire awarded Buchanan the point anyway. After the argument, during which Sousa earned himself an unsportsmanlike warning, the match continued without issue. Sousa was incredulous on line calls many times from the very beginning of the match, but he handled it with with a relative amount of grace, especially as the match went on and he realized there was not much he could do about it. At one point, Sousa even humorously solicited support from a member of the crowd about a Buchanan forehand that appeared to land well past the baseline, and the fans agreed it appeared to be out.

Court 9 was the place to be all day, apparently, as an earlier match featured a three-set thriller between Taylor Townsend and Klara Koukalova that was a rematch of the first round at Wimbledon this year. Townsend won the first set with ease but fell behind early in the second and could never catch up. The third set was an intense, back-and-forth affair with Townsend pulling out the final break to take the match 6-3 4-6 7-5.

Townsend is only 18 but is rising, already ranked at No. 125 in the world, and she could make her way into the top 100 with a few more wins here. She is gaining confidence every time she wins and acknowledged that in press. Townsend pointed out that learning from every match gives her experience to be better, noting, “I'm put in a position in matches where I'm like, Oh, I have been here before. How can I improve from the last match?” She also said that going through qualifying to get into the tournament means a lot. “Just having to qualify gives me a sense of entitlement when I get into the main draw.” 

In other daytime action around the grounds, Benjamin Becker upset Ivo Karlovic in straight sets, Gael Monfils survived against Fredererico Delbonis in three sets, and Fernando Verdasco defeated Marcel Granollers in a third-set tiebreak, despite hitting 74 unforced errors. Marinko Matosevic defeated Nicolas Mahut in straight sets, preventing a potential second-round match between Mahut and John Isner. On the women’s side, Madison Keys beat Alize Cornet in an impressive straight-set performance, and qualifier Pauline Parmentier moved on by beating Casey Dellacqua, also in straight sets.