Fourth seed and 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka was pushed to the limit for his place in the second week at the Australian Open in Melbourne. The Swiss star overcame a determined No. 29 seed Viktor Troicki on Friday before prevailing 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(5) in their third-round clash.
”It was not always the best tennis, but I'm happy to have won the match,” said Wawrinka. “That's all that counts. In general, I had good momentum [and] in the second, third and fourth set, I was playing better. But [it was] tough conditions, quite windy, not easy to really play well or have good rhythm. I'm really happy just to get through.”
The normally steady Wawrinka lost the timing on his shots while up 3-1 in the first set, dropping serve three consecutive times as he lost five games in a row. Troicki played conservatively by hitting just seven winners and seven unforced errors to grab the opening set.
But rather than get rattled, the Swiss star regrouped. He cleaned up his game considerably in the second and third sets, hitting a combined 21 winners to 11 unforced errors while breaking his opponent four times. Meanwhile, it was Troicki who struggled to find his footing in the middle stages of the match, hitting nine winners to 18 unforced errors.
It appeared that Wawrinka would comfortably close out the contest, but the Serbian showed his fighting spirit in the fourth set by thwarting his opponent’s attempts to serve out the match at 5-3 and 6-5. Wawrinka was unable to make good on a 5/2 lead in the tie-break or a match point at 6/5, but dug deep to erase Troicki’s set point chance at 6/7. A pair of backhand errors from Troicki ultimately gave Wawrinka a hard-fought victory in two hours and 32 minutes.
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Next up for the former titlist is Andreas Seppi, who continued his dream run in Melbourne with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(1), 7-6(2) victory over Belgium's Steve Darcis. The 32-year-old Italian continues to excel in Melbourne, having reached the fourth round in 2013 and 2015, but the No. 85 in the Emirates ATP Rankings now seeks a maiden Grand Slam quarter-final.
Wawrinka leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 8-3 and has won their past three matches, but they haven’t faced off since the 2014 BNP Paribas Open.
”It’s going to be an interesting match,” said Wawrinka. “He has been playing really well this tournament. We‘ve play each other a few times. I know it will depend on the way I'm going to play, the way I'm going to be on the court. But it's going to be a good match.”