Playing in his first tournament since a resurgent final run in Umag, Stan Wawrinka powered past home favourite Frances Tiafoe on Wednesday night at the Western & Southern Open. The Swiss wild card dominated from the baseline in a 6-3, 6-4 victory against the 10th-seeded American, wrapping up the emphatic upset in one hour, 18 minutes.
“It’s been probably the best match of the season, I think the most complete match,” Wawrinka said after improving to 6-1 in his past seven outings. “I was feeling good, moving well, serving well, being aggressive, staying with him, fighting. I’m super happy and hopefully I can keep playing that well.”
The victory is Wawrinka’s second this season against a Top 10 opponent, with the first coming against Holger Rune in Indian Wells. The oldest player in the Cincinnati men’s singles draw at age 38, Wawrinka is the third oldest player in ATP Masters 1000 history (since 1990) to reach the Round of 16, behind two such runs by Ivo Karlovic.
The win also moved the Swiss up four places into the Top 50 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings at No. 47. He will enter the Top 40 with a victory against Max Purcell on Thursday.
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Wawrinka improved to 4-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head against Tiafoe with a vintage display that was anchored by his brilliant one-handed backhand. The Swiss dictated off that baseline wing for much of the evening, and even when Tiafoe gained the upper hand in the exchanges, the picture-perfect groundstroke proved a great equaliser.
Tiafoe spent the majority of the match behind on the scoreboard, dropping serve early in both sets. Wawrinka won 96 per cent (23/24) of his first-serve points, aided by 11 aces, while punishing his opponent’s second serve for a 67 per cent win rate (20/30) on the American’s second delivery. The Swiss star finished the match with 22 winners to just 10 unforced errors, and he won all six of his net approaches.
Next up for Wawrinka is a meeting with wild card Purcell on Thursday. The Aussie was a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 winner against fifth seed Casper Ruud earlier on Wednesday.
“I watched him play. He’s a really good player,” Wawrinka said of the World No. 70, who qualified and beat Felix Auger-Aliassime last week in Toronto. “He’s coming in this year, he’s winning a lot of matches. He played well last week. He’s beating top players, he beat Ruud today. It’s going to be a super interesting match.
“We never played each other, we never practised against each other. He’s a dangerous player so again I will have to play my best tennis to win.”