Stan Wawrinka played a good match to edge Andreas Seppi in three consecutive sets 76 76 76, to move into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open with minimum fuss. The fourth seed had briefly been down a break in sets one and three, but quickly retrieved them to win without dropping a set to the veteran Italian.
Wawrinka had struggled in the first round, requiring five sets to beat Martin Klizan. He had looked much better though in knocking out Steve Johnson and Viktor Troicki in rounds two and three.
Seppi’s ranking had taken a dramatic fall over the last two years, falling from a position of regular seeding to one that was closer to falling out of the Top 100. The Italian defeated Nick Kyrgios in the second round though, and reaching the fourth round equalled his best-ever slam run.
Seppi took a shock lead, opening up to three-one as the fourth seed struggled in the early stages. The Swiss’ relentless attacking prowess soon arrived on the scene, winning a lengthy twenty-four shot rally to break back when Seppi dumped a forehand into the net.
Seppi remained competitive though, shrugging off the disappointment of losing the advantage to force a tiebreak. After both men held their early points, Wawrinka earned the early mini-break wrong-footing Seppi with a volley. Wawrinka then put further space between himself and the unseeded Italian after the change of ends, and comfortably won the set.
Seppi remained optimistic and in good form in the second. Though he did not force break opportunities like he had in the first, Seppi nevertheless held serve through most of the set, only facing real trouble at fifteen-forty at five-all, but saved both break points. Seppi again was the first to miss in the tiebreak however, a backhand hit wide into the tramlines. A Wawrinka smash then brough up two set points for a two set lead. The fourth seed duly took the first with a backhand up the line.
Seppi to his credit remained competitive in the third set, even taking a late break, and serving for the set. He failed though, and Wawrinka for the third time in a row won a tiebreak, ending Italian interest in terms of players in the main draw.
Seppi can look back on the tournament with some pride and relief, arresting a ranking slide that had seen him fall close to slipping out of the Top 100. Wawrinka will look forward to a quarter-final against either Jo Wilfried Tsonga, with whom he has a good head-to-head record, or Dan Evans, whom he beat despite facing match point on his way to the 2016 US Open title.
