TENNIS WIMBLEDON – Stan Wawrinka was made to work in his 2nd round match against Yen-Hsun Lu who looked ready to cause an upset. In the end, Wawrinka would raise the level of his game in the key moments of the match to take it 7-66 6-3 3-6 7-5.
Stan Wawrinka (5) is desperately trying to follow up on his Australian Open victory and prove he is one of the “Big Guys” on tour and avoid the label of a “One-Hit Wonder.” He failed miserably in his bid to contend for the French Open title when he was dismissed in the first round. Added to this, he has not made the final of any tournament since Melbourne other than winning Monte Carlo in April. Therefore, he is under tremendous pressure from the tennis world to do well at Wimbledon despite losing in the first round in the last two year. The Swiss won his first round match this week in convincing fashion but he would have a more difficult time getting past a formidable opponent in form of Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei. Lu had the upper hand throughout much of the match but he was unable to capitalize on the many opportunities to seize control. Wawrinka, relying on his experience, was able to wrest the match from Lu’s hands for the win 7-66 6-3 3-6 7-5 in 2 hours and 42 minutes.
Lu had the first break of the match when he broke Wawrinka in the 9th game for a 5-4 lead. However, when he served for the set, Wawrinka broke him at love and then went on to hold at love to lead 6-5. The pressure was back now on Lu down 5-6 and serving to stay in the set. Lu held serve to push the set to a tiebreaker where he quickly raced out to a 5-2 lead. However, Lu became tentative allowing Wawrinka to claw his way back into the set. Wawrinka won the next 6 of 7 points to take the 1st set 7-66. Wawrinka carried this winning momentum into the 2nd set when at 3-3, he rose the level of his game to take the next three games, breaking Lu twice in the process to take the set 6-3 and a 2-0 sets lead.
Lu broke Wawrinka early in the 3rd set for 2-1 but he got broken in the next game and it back even at 2-2. However, Lu would break Wawrinka and go up 5-3 in the set. As Wawrinka served to stay in the set, Lu became aggressive in his return game and earned another break point which he quickly converted. He was getting into the match again. In the 4th set, Lu would have break point for a 5-4 lead and thus be able to serve for the 4th set. However, Wawrinka came up with the big serves to avert danger. He then in turn would break Lu in the 11th game of the set for a 6-5 lead. Wawrinka again upped the level of his game to close out the match with an easy service hold, 7-6 6-3 3-6 7-5.
Wawrinka summed up his performance after the match stating, “I lost a little bit my focus on my serve. Got broken two times a little bit when I was up 40-15 and 40 Love. I don’t know, was just a little down during the match. But generally I’m quite happy with the victory.” Wawrinka looked lethargic at times, moving around the court in a very laboured fashion but he stated in the press conference that he was fine. Lu definitely had his chances in each set including up 5-2 in 1st set tiebreaker. The match statistics were not particularly pleasing but they were good enough for the win. He only got 49% of first serves in, winning 79% of those points and 52% on 2nd serves. He had 56 winners to 40 errors and was 5/10 on break point. Wawrinka will play Denis Istomin in the 3rd round. Istomin took out Julian Reister in straight sets 7-6 6-4 6-4. Wawrinka had this to say of the match up, “He’s a really tough player on the grass courts. I already lost against him. It’s going to be interesting to play him in two days.”
