Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka confirmed on Friday that he is fit and ready for the final leg of the ATP season, starting with the Masters 1000 event in Canada.
Wawrinka, who reluctantly pleaded fatigue after Wimbledon, was to have played at this week’s Swiss Open in Gstaad, which lost its top two seeds as Mikhail Youzhny and Marcel Granollers exited in the quarter-finals.
Dutchman Robin Haase, seeded seventh, won a replay of last year’s final as he put out Youzhny 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, while Pablo Andujar won an all-Spanish contest with a defeat of No. 2 seed Granollers, 7-5, 6-3.
Photo: EPA
Haase came through on his seventh match point in just under two hours.
“I beat him this year so I knew I could do it,” said Haase, ranked 51st in the world. “Once I went a break down in the first set, I started playing better. In the second, my ball was 20kph faster and a meter deeper. I was feeling good and serving better. In the third I couldn’t do anything wrong until 5-2.”
“I felt confident about the match, but then I made some mistakes and got nervous,” Haase said. “At 5-4, 4-0 you think it’s done, but then I had a double-fault. I got nervous, but I closed it out in the end.”
Haase was to face Juan Monaco after the Argentine defeated two-time champion Thomaz Bellucci 7-6 (7/1), 6-1. Andujar was to take on fourth seed Fernando Verdasco, a winner over Serb Viktor Troicki, 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 6-1.
Australian Open winner Wawrinka, beaten by Roger Federer in the Wimbledon quarter-finals, recovered from illness just prior to the Wimbledon start and due to weather scheduling had to play three days in succession during the second half of the tournament.
However, the rested, relaxed 29-year-old, who paid a day visit to sunny Gstaad on Friday said that he is keen for a return to competition.
In addition to the back-to back Masters tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati and then the US Open, Switzerland face Italy in the Davis Cup semi-finals in Geneva in September with Federer and Wawrinka both committed.
“I need to be ready for the last few months of the season,” Wawrinka said. “It’s a long series and it will be tough for sure. It will be another big challenge.”
“I’m trying to be fit and to do everything possible not to be injured,” he said. “I’ve had some rest and that’s important. I also did some work with my fitness trainer, but not a lot on court just yet. I started tennis only a few days ago. I’ll leave next week for Toronto.”
After constructing the season of his life from January to this month, the Swiss admits matching his previous performance will be difficult, if not impossible.
“It will be tough to do better than that for me, but we’ll see. I’m taking it step-by-step in each tournament. I want to be ready for event by event,” he said. “If my level is there, I can have some good results.”
CROATIA OPEN
AP, UMAG, Croatia
Top-seeded Fabio Fognini rallied to defeat Borna Coric of Croatia 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Croatia Open on Friday.
Defending champion Tommy Robredo also advanced to the last four after beating fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 6-4.
The 18th-ranked Robredo was to face third-seeded Marin Cilic, who eased past Czech Lukas Rosol 6-0, 6-2.
Also on Friday, Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay beat Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to become the first qualifier in the event’s semi-finals since Viktor Troicki in 2007.
Cuevas was to play Fognini, who was one set and a break down before he managed to turn the match.
Fognini started the final set more convincingly, and Coric had his last chance at 3-4, but failed to convert break points. Fighting cramp in the ninth game, Coric lost serve again.
“I did not play my best tennis, he was better than me [a] big part of the match,” Fognini said. “I was fighting for every point even though I did not feel very well.”
Robredo won the first set in only 23 minutes. Carreno Busta was twice a break up in the second set, before Robredo responded to win the final three games of the match.
Cilic hit 10 aces and converted five break points to win in just over an hour. The Croat won this tournament in 2012 and reached the 2011 final.
Fifth-seeded Rosol won his first game at the start of the second set.
“I expected his aggressive play and I was prepared,” Cilic said. “I did not expect to lose two games only.”
Cuevas hit 12 aces for his sixth straight win in Umag, including three qualifying rounds.
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