Stan Wawrinka has progressed to the semifinals in St. Petersburg after defeating seventh seed Viktor Troicki 7-5 6-2.
Ednuring a tricky start to the match, where only one break point chance occurred in the first 12 games for either player, Wawrinka finally scored his breakthrough as the proceedings seemed destined for a tiebreak. The Swiss player broke the Troicki serve to grab the opening set 7-5. Capitalizing on his first set advantage, Wawrinka broke twice in the second to take it 6-2 and win the match. During his quarterfinal triumph, Wawrinka won 78% of first serves against Troicki.
In the semifinals Wawrinka will play fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who beat last year’s runner up and eighth seed Joao Sousa 4-6 6-1 6-2. The Spaniard started efficiently by breaking for a 3-1 lead, however, that lead was quickly snuffed out as Sousa broke back for 3-2. Sousa managed to keep his momentum to break and hold serve to take the first set 6-4. Despite the blip, Bautista Agut dominated to break four times in the next two sets to win them 6-1 6-2 to elevate him to his fourth semifinal of the season.
Saturday’s semifinal will be the first ever clash between Wawrinka and Bautista Agut on the tour. Top seed Wawrinka will be favourite for the win, however, he is under no illusion of the threat he could potentially face.
“He’s a great player, a great fighter,” said Wawrinka of his next opponent.
“He likes this kind of surface and I’m looking forward to an interesting match,”
In other results, third seed Tomas Berdych produced a solid performance to overcome Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-4 6-3. Two breaks of serve was enough for the world number nine to make it to the semifinals in Russia. Berdych winning 87% of first serve points was the key to his 557th career win. The Czech will now play fifth seed Alexander Zverev, who pummelled Mikhail Youzhny 6-2 6-2. Youzhny couldn’t back up his win over Milos Raonic, as Zverev hit 8 aces to seal his 37th win of the season, in what has turned into the best season of his blossoming career.
“The match was much harder than the scoreline shows,” Zverev said following his win over Youzhny.
“I played really tough matches with Berdych earlier this year. But if I play like I did today I think I’ve a good chance tomorrow (Saturday).”
