Andy Murray to face Mikhail Youzhny in Cincinnati

Andy Murray has avoided an immediate rematch with Ernests Gulbis after the Latvian lost to Mikhail Youzhny in the first round of the Cincinnati Open.

Murray, given a bye in round one as the second seed, lost to Gulbis in Montreal last week and could have faced him in his opening match in Cincinnati.

However, Youzhny beat Gulbis 7-5 6-3 to set up a tie with Murray on Wednesday.

Victoria Azarenka progressed in the women's draw, while Roger Federer beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3 7-6 (9-7).

Federer, 32, reverted to his old racquet having suffered surprise defeats on clay in Hamburg and Gstaad after Wimbledon.

"I'm going to do more racquet testing when I have some more time after the US Open," said the 17-time Grand Slam champion.

"I was playing for a month with the black one, but it's a prototype. At the end, I just felt right now I feel like I need to simplify everything and just play with what I know best."

Azarenka, the Belarusian second seed, pulled out of Toronto last week with a back issue, but battled past American Vania King 6-1 7-6 (8-6) on her return.

Federer went back to his 90-inch frame after experimenting with a 98-inch frame in recent weeks

Third seed Maria Sharapova lost a three-set battle to American Sloane Stephens 2-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3, while top seed Serena Williams begins her campaign on Wednesday along with Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Murray won the Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati in 2008 and 2011, but lost in the round of 16 last year before going on to win his first Grand Slam title at the US Open.

"Sometimes I have played really well here and sometimes I haven't," he said. "I need to try and get some matches in because that would help for the US Open.

"Last year I didn't play particularly well in the two warm-up tournaments.

"I only played one match in Canada and two matches here and I won the US Open. So I'm not putting loads of pressure on myself this week."