Third seed Stan Wawrinka maintained his run of form on Tuesday when he booked his place in the Roland Garros second round. Wawrinka, the 2015 champion, was made to work in the second set for a 6-2, 7-6(6), 6-3 victory over Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik in one hour and 57 minutes. Kovalik led 2-0 in the second set, then failed to convert three set point opportunities from a 6/3 advantage in the tie-break.
“I'm feeling good [and] I’m happy with the match today, in general,” said Wawrinka. “I think it was never an easy transition after winning [in Geneva] on Saturday. I think I'm playing well. I’ve got some matches, some wins, and then you find your confidence, you start to play better. I have been practising well. I'm happy to have won some big matches.
Tiens, ça ne serait pas l'heure des highlights du match de @stanwawrinka ? ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #RG17 pic.twitter.com/qg9bjL64SO
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 30, 2017
“I tried to play more aggressively, put more pressure on him,” added Wawrinka, when asked what he felt in facing three set points. “As long as the set is not over, there is still room to win it, especially when your opponent is down one set. I think this was a solid match. I'm very happy about how I managed it. I had good feelings playing.”
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The Swiss star, who has not lost to a player ranked outside of the Top 50 in the Emirates ATP Rankings at the clay-court major, hit five more winners (38) than he committed unforced errors (33). He is now 20-8 on the season, having captured his 16th tour-level title on Saturday in retaining the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open crown (d. Mischa Zverev).
Wawrinka will next face Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, who lost only nine of his first service points to defeat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 10 minutes. Dolgopolov leads Wawrinka 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, but the pair has not met since March 2014 at the Miami Open presented by Itau.
Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com.