US Open champion Stan Wawrinka reached the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters, but the Swiss did not do it the easy way. Wawrinka played two good sets between one poor one resulting in a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win against Czech Jiri Vesely.
It was Wawrinka’s first tournament appearance since losing to Alexander Zverev in the Round of 16 in the Miami Masters. Wawrinka will likely have to improve when he takes on the in-form Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas who has a lot of good results on clay. Vesely had beaten the out-of-form Mischa Zverev in the first round, but the meeting with Wawrinka was rather one-sided in the first and third sets.
Last year’s Roland Garros semi-finalist Dominic Thiem eased into the third round with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Robin Haase. Thiem will have a trickier match-up with David Goffin next. The Belgian was a winner yesterday over Nicolas Almagro, and also knocked Thiem out of the Australian Open earlier this year.
Marin Cilic also picked up a welcome win. The Croatian has had a very poor first quarter of 2017 and, with a lot of points to defend on the grass in particular, desperately needs to take some pressure off of that season by finding some form. He has gotten his Monte Carlo tournament off to a good start dismissing France’s Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-0.
Cilic will next face Tomas Berdych after the Czech, who like Cilic has not had the best start to 2017, came from behind for the second straight match to make the third round. Having struggled against Andrey Kuznetsov in round one Berdych defeated 39 year-old Tommy Haas 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Rafael Nadal and Lucas Pouille are in action later on day three of the Monte Carlo Masters. Nadal takes on Britain’s Kyle Edmund, while Pouille faces experienced clay specialist Paolo Lorenzi of Italy.
