If Stan Wawrinka is not ‘back’, he is certainly well on the way.
The former World No. 3 continued his comeback from two knee surgeries, beating 12th seed Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on Monday to reach the second round of the 2018 Western & Southern Open. The Swiss will next face Japanese star Kei Nishikori, against whom he has split eight FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.
“It’s great. I expected a tough match from him,” Wawrinka told Tennis Channel. “I’m really happy because I feel like I keep improving day by day.”
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Wawrinka’s ATP Ranking, which dropped as low as No. 263 in June, is currently No. 151. But it certainly doesn’t look like it on the court. The 2012 Cincinnati semi-finalist arrived at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event straight off perhaps his most encouraging performance of the year at the Rogers Cup, where he survived two epic three-setters before testing eventual champion and World No. 1 Rafael Nadal in a third-round loss.
The 33-year-old showed some of his vintage shotmaking against the gritty Argentine, particularly with his one-handed backhand. Wawrinka broke at 3-3 in the decider, and then survived a break point against him in the following game, using the momentum to break Schwartzman for a fifth time to close out the match after one hour, 55 minutes. Wawrinka has now won three of four matches after going through a 3-10 stretch before that.
Nishikori advanced to the second round by beating #NextGenATP Russian Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-3 in one hour, 32 minutes.
Rublev challenged Nishikori with his powerful groundstrokes off the ground, but Nishikori used his great movement to nullify the aggression, claiming the final 11 points of the match. Nishikori will try to reach the Round of 16 for the third time in Cincinnati.
Did You Know?
Three of Wawrinka’s nine wins this season have come against Top 20 opposition. The Swiss beat Nick Kyrgios last week in Toronto, and defeated reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov at Wimbledon.
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