Playing in his home nation and on a protected ranking, 37-year-old Stan Wawrinka knocked out No. 2 seed Casper Ruud of Norway 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Tuesday in Switzerland.
The three-time Grand Slam winner is still coming back from a foot injury that required multiple surgeries. He saved all three break points he faced against Ruud, went 2-for-2 in break points converted and held a 9-5 edge in aces.
Spanish fifth seed Pablo Carreno Busta defeated Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-1, and sixth seed and fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut took down Serbian qualifier Laslo Djere 6-4, 6-1.
Andy Murray of Great Britain got past Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. Other winners included Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, Alex Molcan of Slovakia, Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands and Swiss wild card Dominic Stricker.
Erste Bank Open
On home soil, Dominic Thiem saved two match points and battled back to beat Tommy Paul 2-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6) in the first round in Vienna, Austria.
In the second round, Thiem could face No. 1 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia, who still must play Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia in an opening-round match.
Fifth seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland pushed past Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (9), 3-6, 6-3. In addition to smashing 28 total aces, Hurkacz rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the first-set tiebreaker and saved two set points before steamrolling ahead.
British seventh seed Cameron Norrie came back to beat Argentine lucky loser Pedro Cachin 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (1). Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, Daniel Evans of Great Britain, Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland and Denis Shapovalov of Canada also won their matches.
–Field Level Media
