Stan Wawrinka has suffered this Wednesday one of the toughest eliminations that can be experienced at the Australian Open. The Swiss, seventeenth favorite for the title, fell to Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in five sets 7-5, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 and 7-6 (9) after almost four hours of the game.
The meeting was put Wawrinka was very uphill from the beginning, with Fucsovics conquering the first set and the Hungarian’s rotundity in the second set to put the match on track. However Wawrinka pulled the claw to win the next two sets and force the fifth set.
A fifth set in which Fucsovics led the initiative but in which ‘Stan The Man’ was remade again to force the super tie-break. The Swiss was more solid in the first points and got 9-6 in favor and three match points. Yet incomprehensibly Wawrinka made three consecutive mistakes that made Fucsovics turn the super tie-break around to close the match with a winner.
Raonic can with Moutet
Fucsovics will now fight for a place in the round of 16 against the Canadian Milos Raonic, who had to come back to beat Frenchman Corentin Moutet by 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-1 and 6-4. The Canadian once again showed off his powerful serve (26 direct aces and 93% of points won with his first service) against the Frenchman, who managed to stand up to him in the tie-break but then did not disturb Raonic for the rest of the match.
Thiem beats Koepfer
Less trouble went through Dominic Thiem to seal his ticket to the third round. The Austrian clearly beat German Dominik Koepfer 6-4, 6-0 and 6-2 after one hour and 39 minutes of the game. Thiem returned to play a very solid game with 34 winners for 21 unforced errors against a Koepfer that went from more to less. The Austrian will now face the winner of the match between Australian Nick Kyrgios and Frenchman Ugo Humbert in the third round.
Schwartzman and Auger-Aliassime advance
The Argentine also continues ahead in the Australian Open Diego Schwartzman. The ‘Peque’ had less trouble than in the first round against the French ‘lucky loser’ Alexandre Muller, who had just beaten another Argentine in the first round, Juan Ignacio Londero. Schwartzman, eighth seed, won in three sets 6-2, 6-0 and 6-3 and in the third round he will meet the Russian tennis player Aslan Karatsev, who swept the Belarusian Egor Gerasimov (6-0, 6-1 and 6-0).
The Canadian also sealed his ticket to the third round Félix Auger-Aliassime, who solved his match against Australian James Duckworth 6-4, 6-1 and 6-2 on the fast track. Now Auger-Aliassime awaits a rival in the next phase, where he could have a Canadian duel against Denis Shapovalov or meet the controversial Bernard Tomic.
Calendar and results.
