Swiss figurehead Stan Wawrinka has reached the round of 16 at the Swiss Indoors in Basel. He won his opening match against Adrian Mannarino 6:3, 3:6, 7:5.
In their fourth duel, Wawrinka (ATP 169) beat the French left-hander Mannarino (ATP 57) for the first time. Like Dominic Stricker, he is now through to the round of 16. The Vaud native will face the American Ben Shelton (ATP 23) on Thursday, while the Bernese will play the Dane Holger Rune (ATP 14).
Wawrinka got off to a lightning start in the not quite full St. Jakobshalle and led 5:0 after just a few minutes. He served superbly and seemed to have cracked the riddle of the uncomfortable left-hander, to whom he had last lost in five sets at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year. However, Mannarino then managed to significantly reduce his previously very high error rate and the expected evenly balanced battle of attrition developed.
Strong nerves in the decider
Wawrinka took the first set thanks to a strong service game at 6:3, but lost the second after the only break at 2:4. In the third and deciding set, the three-time Grand Slam champion then demonstrated the confidence he had regained last week by reaching the semi-finals in Stockholm.
He twice survived a dicey situation on his own serve before taking his first opportunity at 6:5. After exactly two hours, he advanced to the round of 16 - frenetically cheered by the fans, Mannarino played a forehand into the net on his second match point.
Ruud with the next disappointment
Number 2 seed Casper Ruud once again failed early at the Swiss Indoors. The Norwegian lost to the Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets.
As successful as Ruud was on Swiss clay in Geneva (3 titles) and Gstaad (2), the Scandinavian struggled in the St. Jakobshalle. After the first round in 2022 (against Stan Wawrinka) and the second round a year ago (against Dominic Stricker), this time the world number 8 had to call it a day in his opening match. Ruud lost 3:6, 6:3, 3:6 to the in-form Roberto Bautista Agut (ATP 45), who won the tournament in Antwerp last week.
Félix Auger-Aliassime, on the other hand, is a real specialist in Basel. The Canadian, who has won the last two events, remains unbeaten on the banks of the Rhine. He prevailed in two sets against the Argentinean clay specialist Sebastian Baez (ATP 26).
The first quarter-finalists are Andrei Rublev, the tournament number 1 from Russia, and David Goffin, the 2014 finalist from Belgium.
SDA
