Aoi Ito defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6–1, 4–6, 6–4 in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters 1000 on hard court on 10 August 2025, an upset victory against the pre-match favourite. Pavlyuchenkova, seeded higher in the betting odds at 1.59 to Ito's 2.49, struggled to maintain consistency throughout the encounter. Ito claimed the opening set decisively before Pavlyuchenkova levelled the match in the second, yet the Japanese player recovered to secure the decider and advance. The result marks a notable upset at one of the tour's premier events and demonstrates Ito's capacity to compete against higher-ranked opponents on the hard courts.