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 Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka a local a year ago at the Japan Open by dominating Czech Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-3 on Tuesday to reach the second round of his first event of the autumn in Asia. The top seed and reigning French Open champion had lost four of five matches to the wily 36-year-old Stepanek, who played Tokyo for the first time 16 years ago. "I played a very good match, I'm happy with how it went," said the winner. "I'm off to a really good start this week." Three of four other seeds suffered upsets, with only number three Gilles Simon of France joining Wawrinka in the second round with a victory over qualifier Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-4. There were losses for the bigger names as Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut hammered fourth seed Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-1. Gilles Muller of Luxembourg upset fifth seed Kevin Anderson 6-2, 6-3; Marcos Baghdatis beat Spain's Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-1. Benoit Paire stopped number eight Grigor Dimitrov, now out of the top 20, in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 result. Australians were eliminated at the opening stage through retirements, with Sam Groth, quitting with a foot injury in a 6-3, 2-0 loss to Jeremy Chardy, and American Steve Johnson taking a 6-3, 2-1 win over an ill Bernard Tomic. Qualifier Austin Krajicek rallied past Aussie Matthew Ebden 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), a battle which took three hours. Wawrinka, already qualified into the eight-man field for next month's ATP World Tour Finals in London, was able to concentrate totally on his game after losing a year ago to Tatsuma Ito at the Ariake Colosseum. Now, the 30-year-old Swiss gets a chance to avenge that embarrassment in the second round when he takes on the number 127 Japanese for the second year in a row. "I feel totally different with my game now than I did here a year ago," said the Swiss. "I feel fresh with my game now." Wawrinka beat Stepanek in an hour and a quarter, with 11 aces and three breaks of the veteran's serve. "In my other losses to Stepanek, I was a different player. In the past it was not easy for me to play a serve-and-volley opponent who came to the net and attacked a lot - but now I know how to handle those guys. "I've improved all parts of my game over the past few year. I'm confident against that kind of player." Wawrinka is playing in Tokyo for the fourth time having reached quarter-finals on his first two visits in 2009 and 2012. The Swiss improved to 44-13 on the season with titles in Chennai, Rotterdam and Roland Garros. Along with number one Novak Djokovic, he is the only other player to have reached the quarter-finals or better at all four grand slam tournaments this year. | |||||
mercredi 7 octobre 2015
Confident Wawrinka off to winning start in Tokyo
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