- Stan Wawrinka beats Frances Tiafoe (USA) in 2:47 hours at the grass tournament in Queen’s with 7: 6 (7: 2), 6: 7 (6: 8), 7: 6 (7: 5).
- In the 3rd set, the Romand shows great fair play against one of his best friends on the tour.
- There is also good news for Wawrinka from Wimbledon: he received a wild card from the organizers.
It has been almost three years since Stan Wawrinka last played a grass match on the tour (second-round out at Wimbledon 2019). Now he has returned to the green pad in London, at the 500 event in Queen’s. And this successfully.
Wawrinka, who slipped to 290th position due to his long injury break, beat the American Frances Tiafoe (ATP 27) 7: 6 (7: 2), 6: 7 (6: 8), 7: 6 (7: 5) in the first lap. The spectators didn’t get to see very many intense rallies. However, the Swiss indicated three things in the mostly short points: First, his serve (22 aces) works. Second, the backhand is still a feast for the eyes. And third, he is still a warrior before the Lord.
Wawrinka gives Tiafoe a point… and gets broken
There were no breaks in service in the first two sets – both players prevailed once each in the tie-break. Tiafoe equalized to make it 1-1 in sets after fending off a Wawrinka match point in the short decision.
The decisive passage then had it all. The sentence began unusually: In the first game, Wawrinka showed great fair play and overruled the chair umpire at 15:0. Instead of repeating the point, it continued at 15:15 … and the Swiss was broken for the first time a short time later.
Tiafoe serves to win the match… and gets a break
At 5:4 Tiafoe was able to serve to win the match, but Wawrinka managed to break through the service at the last opportunity. In the 3rd short decision of the day, Wawrinka played out a 6:3 lead – and after 2:47 hours he turned his 4th match point into a success. “Games like this are the reason why I’m still playing,” Wawrinka said after the match on the court.
The game against Tiafoe, whom Wawrinka describes as one of his “best friends on the tour”, was doubly special: the day before, the two had played doubles together (and lost). In the round of 16, Wawrinka meets either Denis Shapovalov (CAN/ATP 15) or Tommy Paul (USA/ATP 35). The game was interrupted late on Tuesday evening when the score was 4:6, 6:2 due to darkness and will be played to the end on Wednesday.
Wawrinka at Wimbledon
Wawrinka received more good news from London on Tuesday. He was awarded one of the eight wildcards for the 3rd Grand Slam tournament of the year by the Wimbledon organizers. The Romand was in 2014 and 2015 on the “holy turf” in the quarter-finals.
