Playing in his home country and a protected ranking, Stan Wawrinka, 37, knocked out No. 2 seed Kasper Ruud of Norway 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Tuesday in Switzerland.
The three-time Grand Slam winner is still recovering from a foot injury that required multiple surgeries. He saved all three break points he faced against Ruud, went 2-for-2 on break points and held a 9-5 advantage in aces.
Spain’s fifth seed Pablo Carreno Busta defeated Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-1, while Spain’s sixth seed Roberto Bautista Agut defeated Serbian qualifier Laszlo Jere 6-4, 6-1.
Andy Murray of Great Britain beat Russian qualifier Roman Sofiulin 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Other winners included Serbia’s Mijamir Kecsmanovic, Slovakia’s Alex Molkan, Netherlands’ Botik van de Zandshulp and Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker.
Erste Bank Open
On home soil, Dominic Thiem saved two match points to see off Tommy Paul 2-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) in the first round in Vienna, Austria.
In the second round, Thiem could face top-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia, who is yet to play Georgia’s Nikolas Basilashvili in a first-round match.
Fifth-seeded Hubert Gurkach of Poland edged Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (9), 3-6, 6-3. In addition to serving 28 aces in total, Gurkach rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the first set tiebreak to save two set points before breaking out in front.
Britain’s seventh seed Cameron Norrie came back to beat Argentina’s lucky loser Pedro Cachino 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (1). Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria, Daniel Evans from Great Britain, Emil Ruusuvuori from Finland and Denis Shapovalov from Canada also won their matches.
–Field-level media
http://www.unitedkingdomnews.net/news/272985893/atp-roundup-stan-wawrinka-ousts-casper-ruud-in-switzerland
