Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam winner who returned to the tour this year after the birth of her first child, needed just 65 minutes to dispatch Gavrilova.
Federer seeded second, has won in Cincinnati a record seven times but hasn't played there since winning in 2015. In 2016 he had a knee injury, and in 2017 he had back problems.
Murray works his way back from hip surgery and moved into the third round at the Citi Open by beating No. 4 seed Kyle Edmund 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4.
The All England Club announced Murray's withdrawal a day before the grass-court Grand Slam tournament begins.
Williams is returning to the grass-court tournament for the first time since 2016 after missing it last year while pregnant.
The three-time major winner has not played since last year's Wimbledon due to a hip injury and subsequent surgery.
Murray says his recovery has "been very slow" and is taking "a lot longer than I think me or any of my team kind of expected at the beginning."
As usual, all eyes are on Serena Williams, no matter what — whether she's attending the most talked-about wedding of the year or practicing at Roland Garros.
The former No. 1-ranked Murray, a three-time major winner, has not played a competitive match since a quarterfinal exit at Wimbledon last July.
Serena's withdrawal comes less than 24 hours after fellow former world No.1 Andy Murray withdrew from the men's event with a chronic hip injury.
The five-time finalist withdrew from the Australian Open on Thursday, two days after pulling out of a tuneup event in Brisbane before his first match.
Murray was seeded No. 2 in Brisbane, where he'd been expecting to play his first competitive match since a quarterfinal loss at Wimbledon.
Murray, who has been struggling to find full fitness following a right hip problem, was initially only in Abu Dhabi to practice before next month's Australian Open.
Lendl helped Murray win the 2012 U.S. Open and the gold medal at the London Olympics.
Murray hasn't played on the pro circuit since the Wimbledon quarterfinals, where he limped out with a hip injury.
Andy Murray, who yielded the No.1 ranking to Rafael Nadal this week, has not played a match since July 12 at Wimbledon.
Murray, who was out of action because of a hip injury, drops to second spot with 7,150 points.
Pliskova, the 2016 runner-up at Flushing Meadows, is joined by four past U.S. Open champions - Angelique Kerber, Venus Williams, Sam Stosur and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Roger Federer expressed his concern with the mindset of the younger generation, who still have not been able to knock off the 30-plus elite from the top of the ranks.
Guardian hailed Andy as ‘The Feminist Tennis Needs’ after he slammed Wimbledon Officials for giving privilege to men’s matches on centre court.
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