Stanislas Wawrinka has defeated Milos Raonic of Canada in the quarter final of the Western and Southern Open at Cincinnati. However, the victory didn’t come easily for Wawrinka. He had to work hard for 2 hour and 21 minutes for this win. The Swiss player won the match by 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. With this victory, Wawrinka has secured a place in the final 4 where he will play against his countryman and world no. 1 Roger Federer.
Raonic dominated Wawrinka in the first set. He broke the service of the Swiss star in the third game of the first set and then, held his service in the next game to make the score 3-1. Raonic got the second breakthrough in the seventh game and then, sealed the set by serving out the next game. In the second set, neither of the two players was able to get a breakthrough in the first 12 games and the scores were tied at 6-6. The set went into the tie breaker. Both the players fought hard in the tie breaker, but, Wawrinka played a bit better than the Canadian and won the second set by 7-6(5). Wawrinka was off to a fantastic start in the final set. He broke Raonic’s service in the third game and then, served out the next game to make the score 3-1. Wawrinka didn’t let Raonic come back in the game after that and kept himself ahead till the end to win the third set by 6-4.
After the match, Wawrinka said that the last few months have been quite tough for him. His performance was not up to the mark in the Wimbledon and the Olympics. But, he is slowly getting back into form. Hopefully, he would continue playing well in the further matches as well.
The Swiss pair of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka has been defeated in the second round of the men’s tennis doubles tournament of London Olympics by the Israeli pair of Jonathan Elrich and Andy Ram. The Swiss pair had won the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics four years ago, but, the pair hasn’t been able to repeat the same this time around. The Swiss pair, which had been given the sixth seed in the competition, lost the match by 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-3. The Israeli pair won the match in 1 hour and 39 minutes.
The Swiss pair started the match well and won the first set pretty easily in just 28 minutes. It seemed that the Swiss pair would not have to face much difficulty in going to the next round. But, Elrich and Ram had some other ideas. They gave a strong fight to the Swiss pair in the second set and the second set went into the tie breaker. The Isareli players hold their nerves in the tie breaker and played sensibly to win the second set by 7-6. In the third set, the performance of the Swiss pair was not up to the mark. The Israeli pair broke the service of Swiss team once in the third set and then held its service in the remaining games to win the third set by 6-3.
In the post match Press conference, Wawrinka said that the conditions were not easy to play tennis. There was a strong breeze going across the court and it was quite tough to play the shots. Wawrinka said that the match was pretty close. The Swiss pair needed to play well during the vital moments of the match, but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen. As per Wawrinka, had the Swiss pair created one or two more opportunities, the result of the match would have been different.
The Swiss Tennis player, Stanislas Wawrinka, was defeated by Paul Henri Mathieu in the Swiss Open 2012, which is being played at Gstaad in Switzerland. It was a very close encounter. Both the sets went into the tie breaker. But, the experienced French player, Mathieu, played well during the vital moments and earned a place for himself in the quarter finals. Wawrinka and Mathieu were playing for the first time against each other.
Mathieu is making a comeback in this tournament after getting rid of knee injury. When Mathieu first burst on to the scene, he was a very talented and flamboyant player. At one point of time, he was at no. 12 in the official rankings of World Tennis Association (WTA). But, the injuries disturbed him a lot in his career. But, during the last match, he showed his old form. However, Wawrinka played some power tennis and fired 10 aces, but, even after that Mathieu was able to survive and win the match.
On being asked about his poor performance in the match, Wawrinka said that it was not a good day for him. He made some unnecessary mistakes which he shouldn’t have done. He said that in such close matches, one or two mistakes can cost you the match and that’s what happened in this match. He said that he didn’t play well in both the tie breakers and that cost him the match. However, he also gave credit to Mathieu to keep his nerves during the key moments of the game. He said that Mathieu played some outstanding tennis and never got panicked. As per Wawrinka, it would have been nice to play well in front of the home crowd and win the tournament in his own country, but, unfortunately that did not happen and he got out of the tournament.