The was an inevitability that top seed Stan Wawrinka would experience a shaky start at the Swiss Indoors Open in Basel after he outlasted compatriot Marco Chiudinelli 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-4.
Despite playing in his home country, Basel has been a place of heartbreak for the US Open champion in recent years. Since 2012 he has bowed out in the first round four consecutive times. Number five seemed to be around the corner after he dropped the opening set against Chiudinelli on Tuesday evening. Quickly restoring equality with a dominant middle set, Wawrinka faced further nightmares in the third seed. At 3-4, the Swiss favourite was forced to save two break points to level. The encounter was much closer that the ranking difference of 116 places, but nevertheless Wawrinka managed to find a way to close the match out and break the four-year curse.
“It was a tough physical and mental battle,” Wawrinka said about his win over the Basel-born player. “It was a huge fight with Marco, he was playing at home and had the crowd on his side.
“It was so tough to beat him here. He played great and I had to fight, I needed to work hard to find a winning solution.
“The third set was so tight, I’m just very content to get past the first round. I’ll prepare for Thursday and hope to go further in the tournament. The most important thing was to win this match.”
After what was a far from perfect start to the tournament by Wawrinka, who produced 49 unforced errors alongside 59 winners in his first round match, he will be hoping for an easier second round clash against Donald Young. Qualifier Young downed Illya Marchenko 6-4, 6-2, in his opening match.
Wawrinka’s avoidance of a first round upset was one that other high profiled players failed to achieve at the tournament. Second Seed Milos Raonic and his usual reliable serve came undone against Ricardas Berankis. The Wimbledon finalist fired 13 aces, but his erratic play resulted in him being edged out by Berankis 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
This is how @berankisr completed his upset win over #Raonic. He was thrilled! pic.twitter.com/hh2JSaikDZ
— TennisTV (@TennisTV) 25 October 2016
Awaiting Berankis in the last sixteen will be Federico Delbonis, who dismissed Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-4.
Sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov was another addition to the casualty list after crashing out to big-server Gilles Muller 6-7(9), 6-4, 6-4, in a match that lasted a fraction shy of two-and-a-half hours. The Bulgarian had opportunities to grab a stronghold on the match, but he failed to sustain them. Failing to convert to convert nine out of ten break point opportunities, Dimitrov had a set and a 2-0 lead before Muller battled back. Then in the decider he had a triple break-point chance to break for a 4-3 lead, but failed to convert as his rival from managed to close the match out.
Progressing to the second round of the Swiss tournament for the first time in his career, 33-year-old Muller will play Germany’s Florian Mayer. Mayer outlasted Benoit Paire in three sets.
