Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka eased through his potentially tricky second round match with Andrey Rublev for the loss of just five games, as he advanced to the Chennai quarter-finals 6-3, 6-2.
The defending champion looked every inch of his No. 4 ranking, as he proved a class above the youthful Russian in their first meeting. Wawrinka was remarkably consistent, managing to remain above eight percent in terms of service points won for most of the match. He lost just a total of eight points against serve and did not have to face a single break point.
Rublev in contrast, looked in trouble from the off, as he attempted to deal with six break points in the first set. Wawrinka only needed one to take the opening set. Rublev did at least managed to win more than half his second serve points in set two, something he had failed to do in the first set, but was actually broken twice compared to his first set effort. Wawrinka wrapped up the win in just fifty-two minutes.
The easy progress for seeds had been started by Borna Coric, who won a competitive first set with Austin Krajicek before pulling away in the second, eventually winning 7-5, 6-2. The young Croatian, who was beaten in the second round of this event by Wawrinka in 2015, produced similarly dominant numbers to the Swiss on serve to deny the American all but a glimmer of a break chance.
Ante Pavic’s run from qualifying was finally ended in the second round by fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 7-6, 6-1. Pavic paid the price for not taking advantage of nine break points through the first set, as Garcia-Lopez won on the strength of an improvement in the tie-break. Pavic’s challenger then crumbled, as he surrendered ten points from eighteen on his serve in the second set, with Garcia-Lopez taking advantage to break twice.
Roberto Bautista-Agut also booked his place in the quarter-finals, defeating John Millman 6-4, 6-1. Millman proved woeful on second serve, as he was able to win just four points when he missed the first. This included an unenviable run of failing to win a single second serve point in the final set from a total of eight. Bautista-Agut produced a consistent display to earn a match with Coric in the next round.
Benoit Paire and Gilles Muller are the two seeds that feature in later play in Chennai.
