Stan Wawrinka has reached the second round after Dmitry Tursunov withdrew from the match with injury when Wawrinka was leading 7-6 (7-2) 6-3.
Wawrinka faced a tough opposition in the first set where Tursunov saved six break points. Tursunov earned a set point at 6-5 but Wawrinka saved it with an ace. Wawrinka got a mini-break to win 7-2 at the tie-break.
The 2014 Australian Open champion converted his second break point chance in the second set to race to 3-0. Wawrinka never looked back and held his service games to take the second set with 6-3. Tursunov, who dropped his ranking outside the top 200 due to a left foot injury, called a medical time-out during the second set and was forced to withdraw at the start of the third set with a leg injury.
“That’s not the way you want to win. I am never happy with an injury of an opponent for sure but that’s part of the game”, said Wawrinka
Wawrinka finished the first two sets with 37 winners to Tursunov’s 13.
Wawrinka will face Radek Stepanek in the second round on Thursday. Stepanek beat Tatsuma Ito 6-4 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 in three hours and 15 minutes. Stepanek has become the oldest player to have won a match at the Australian Open since Bob Carmichael and Ken Rosewall in 1978.
“Radek is always a tough opponent. I played him last year in Tokyo. It was a tough match. He is always playing good. It’s a quite fast surface, so he should serve and volley, playing flat. All depends on how I am going to play. If I am serving well, aggressive, hopefully I can made it through”, said Wawrinka
The biggest upset of the second day was US Rajeev Ram’s win over number 11 seed Kevin Anderson. Ram was leading 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 3-0 as Anderson was forced to retire after the third game of the fourth set. The first two sets had no breaks of serve and were decided by two tie-breaks. Ram did not convert two break point chances in the first set before Anderson won the tie-break 7-4. The South African player failed to convert the only break point chance of the second set which Ram won 7-4 at the tie-break. Anderson dropped his serve in the first game of the third set with a double fault. The US player got a double break in the ninth game to win the third set 6-3 before reeling off 12 consecutive points at the start of the fourth set to cruise to 3-0. Ram will face Frenchman Stephane Robert who eased past to 6-2 6-2 6-2 over Bjorn Fratangelo from the USA. Robert won 88 percent of his first serve points and hit 42 winners to 34 unforced errors, while Fratangelo hit 20 winners to 46 unforced errors.
Jack Sock overcame the loss of the second and the third sets to edge out his teenage compatriot Taylor Fritz in five sets 6-4 3-6 0-6 6-3 6-4. It looked as though Sock was on the verge of defeat after losing the third set with a bagel and rolling an ankle but the US player turned around the match to win the fourth and the fifth sets.
Sock got the only break to win the first set. Fritz took the second set before cruising to a bagel in the third set losing only four points. Sock bounced back twisted an ankle and fell awkwardly to the court at 4-2 40-15 in his favour and was close to withdrawing from the match. However Sock got an early break to clinch the fifth set. Sock will face Lukas Rosol who beat Japan’s Taro Daniel in five sets 7-6 (7-2) 7-5 5-7 6-7 (5-7) 6-1.
Bernard Tomic rallied from losing the first set at the tie-break to edge out Denis Istomin in four sets 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-4 6-4. Istomin failed to convert the only three break points of the first set which came down to the tie-break. Istomin got three mini-breaks to win the tie-break with 7-4. In the first set Istomin won 88 percent of his first serve points and never faced a break point.
Tomic got an early break on his first opportunity to take a 1-0 lead and closed out the second set. Tomic broke to love at the start of the third set and closed out with a big serve. The Australian player got the crucial break in the ninth game of the fourth set to take a 5-4 lead before wrapping up the match in three hours.
Tomic set up a second round match against Simone Bolelli who beat US Brian Baker 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5).
“I served very well. That was the most important thing. But I went through lapses where I played very well and played very bad. A few things I need to work on tomorrow to try to recover as much as I can”, said Tomic.
Jeremy Chardy overcame Ernests Gulbis after a five-set marathon match with 7-5 2-6 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 13-11 on Court 19. Gulbis went up a break and served for the match at 5-4 but he was broken back by Chardy. Gulbis saved two match-points in the 15th game with a drop-shot and a second-serve ace. Chardy. Chardy sealed the win on his seventh match-point as Gulbis served at 11-12 after almost five hours. Chardy will face Andrey uznetsov who beat Ryan Harrison 7-5 6-4 6-4.
