Wawrinka advances, Raonic falls
Print Edition
HITTING sublime backhands, defending champion Stan Wawrinka surged 7-6 (5), 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-2 into the French Open quarterfinals, so in control against Viktor Troicki yesterday that he amused himself and the crowd by hitting with a ball boy while the Serb took time out for treatment in the third set.
After lending the lucky lad a racket for their impromptu hit-about, the third-seeded Swiss got back to business, securing his win in cold and humid conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros in Paris in just under three hours.
Wawrinka needed eight set points to overcome Troicki, seeded No. 22, in the first set. He failed to capitalize on the first four when Troicki was serving at 5-6 and then saw three more go to waste in the tiebreaker before getting the set lead in 49 minutes.
In the second tiebreaker, it was Troicki who needed five set points to break down Wawrinka, who hit an attempted forehand lob long for the Serb to level.
A backhand winner from Wawrinka — one of 14 from him in the match — broke Troicki to love in the fourth game of the third set, during which the Serb got treatment on his right leg and was given pills.
Wawrinka staved off a break point with a sublime cross-court backhand for a 5-1 lead in the fourth set. An ace brought up two match points for Wawrinka and he converted the first when Troicki netted a backhand from the baseline.
Garbine Muguruza also advanced to the quarterfinals for a third straight year. The array of shots and maturity the 22-year-old deployed in an intensely fought 6-3, 6-4 win against 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova strengthened the argument that Muguruza could soon be challenging Serena Williams for the top spot in women’s tennis.
The fourth-seeded Spaniard started at lightning pace, serving an ace with her first and third balls. In the last game, she stayed cool during five match points to finish off the 13th-seeded Russian.
Standing in the way of her second semifinal at a major tournament is Shelby Rogers. The 108th-ranked American who had never made it out of the third round at one of the grand slams beat Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-4. The Romanian, seeded No. 25, is the third seeded player to fall to Shelby in her march to the quarterfinals.
“I’m definitely outside of my comfort zone already, and I keep telling myself, ‘You belong here, you belong here’,” Shelby said.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas, a 55th-ranked Spanish player who had never made it past the second round of 18 previous grand slams, also is on a roll. He ousted Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 — breaking the eighth-seeded Canadian five times and saving six of seven break points — to play Wawrinka in the quarterfinals.
“I have no words to explain how I feel,” Ramos-Vinolas said. “It was four years in a row losing in the first round.”
Cool and cloudy weather appeared to take some bite out of Raonic’s serve on the red clay, with new coach John McEnroe among the spectators on Court Suzanne Lenglen before they work together at Wimbledon next month. Raonic, a quarterfinalist at Roland Garros in 2014 and semifinalist at this year’s Australian Open, complained of an aching left hip in his previous match but didn’t appear to have trouble moving against Ramos-Vinolas and later said it wasn’t an issue.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
