Top seed Stan Wawrinka eased into the quarter-finals of the St. Petersburg Open on Wednesday, downing Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-1 in the second round. The Swiss, who is coming off a title run at the US Open (d. Djokovic), only lost one first-serve point and did not drop serve. He hit eight aces and secured the win in 58 minutes. Wawrinka last played in St. Petersburg in 2004. That year, he fell to Jean-Rene Lisnard in the final.

Wawrinka improved to 6-0 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against the Czech. He will face Viktor Troicki or Dusan Lajovic in the next round. Troicki routed Gastao Elias 6-1, 6-2 in under one hour in their first-round clash on Wednesday. The seventh seed notched his first match win on his fourth appearance at the St. Petersburg Open. Troicki hit six aces and lost just three of his first service points.

Elsewhere, Joao Sousa, the eighth seed, scraped past qualifier Radu Albot 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Mikhail Youzhny improved to 32-12 lifetime at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament by overcoming Janko Tipsarevic, the 2011 runner-up, 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 51 minutes. Youzhny beat Karol Beck for the 2004 title.

It was a day for sightseeing in St. Petersburg as Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic took time away from the St. Petersburg Open to visit the iconic St. Isaac cathedral on Tuesday. The duo were joined by Raonic’s girlfriend Danielle Knudson to take a tour of one of the city’s most picturesque landmarks, as well as a climb up a private staircase to the Balustrade where 12 bronze angels overlook St. Petersburg.

“I think it’s pretty special,” said Raonic, who will open his title defence in the Russian city against 2004 champion Mikhail Youzhny in the second round. “You can see most of fantastic cultural icons, monuments here in St. Petersburg. From this point atop St. Isaac’s Church, you can see everything and you really get to see how big St. Petersburg is, which sometimes you can really forget if you are driving a car. To climb to the Top of St Isaac’s Cathedral today was simply phenomenal.”

“It was really interesting to get a tour and to go downstairs to see all the cathedral and to get so much information,” said Berdych. “It’s a beautiful part of the city, so it was really interesting.

“The city is full of history and old architecture part and many other things as well. I’m coming from Prague, which is also a very historical city, so it’s always nice to see different parts of the city, the cathedral, the palaces and the stuff like this.” 

Though both players stand 6’5” tall, Berdych and Raonic admitted fighting their fear of heights in order to enjoy the vantage point. “I’m not the biggest fan of the heights. I’m afraid of that,” the Czech said. “I always managed with myself to see, because the view is really beautiful and something different when you can see the city from above.” 

“I’m not very good with heights,” the Canadian said. “The CN Tower in Toronto has to be the tallest place I’ve been to. I try to stay away of heights. Luckily, this structure has been around for over 600 years. So I definitely feel safe here.”

Berdych, the third seed, will face Andrey Kuznetsov in his opening match in the second round.

The best stretch of Paolo Lorenzi’s career continued on Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Open. The 34-year-old Italian saved two match points to outlast German qualifier Mischa Zverev 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-0 in two hours and six minutes to move into the second round at the Sibur Arena.

Earlier this month at the US Open, Lorenzi reached the third round and took a set off World No. 2 Andy Murray. In July, the Rome native became the oldest first-time winner in ATP World Tour history by winning the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel at the age of 34 years, seven months (d. Basilashvili).

Read What Lorenzi Had To Say After His First ATP World Tour Title

Lorenzi, who’s playing a career high No. 35 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will face French qualifier Alexandre Sidorenko in the second round. The 28-year-old Paris resident upset sixth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 7-5, 6-2. Sidorenko, No. 255 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, had not played a tour-level match this season.

Serbian Dusan Lajovic gained the edge in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. The 26-year-old Belgrade native won 74 per cent of his service points and now leads their series 2-1. Lajovic will meet either countryman Viktor Troicki, the seventh seed, or Portugal’s Gastao Elias in the second round.

Russian qualifier Daniil Medvedev also advanced. The 20 year old beat 19-year-old compatriot Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-0 in 60 minutes. Medvedev will next face fifth seed Alexander Zverev.

Dustin Brown, now at a career-high No. 68 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, continued his good form with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Paul-Henri Mathieu on Tuesday at the Moselle Open. The German, fresh off a runner-up finish at the ATP Challenger event in Szczecin, fired 15 aces and capitalised on four of his six break point chances to advance to the second round in Metz. Brown will next face Julien Benneteau for the first time.

French qualifier Vincent Millot upset compatriot and seventh seed Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-3, while fellow qualifiers Peter Gojowczyk and Nikoloz Basilashvili were also victorious over Nicolas Almagro and Gregoire Barrere respectively. The German Gojowczyk will next face top seed Dominic Thiem, while Basilashvili will challenge Gilles Muller in the second round.

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez needed one hour and 38 minutes to top Damir Dzumhur 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 and set a second-round clash with fourth seed Gilles Simon. The Frenchman leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head 5-0.

In doubles, Gero Kretschmer/Jan-Lennard Struff defeated Ken Skupski/Neal Skupski 1-6, 7-5, 10-6 for a quarter-final meeting with second seeds Oliver Marach/Fabrice Martin. Nicholas Monroe/Artem Sitak beat Julian Knowle/Andreas Seppi 6-2, 5-7, 10-6 and Colin Fleming/Scott Lipsky came from a set down to beat the Austrian wild card team of Jurgen Melzer/Dominic Thiem 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-8.

The last time Stan Wawrinka played in St. Petersburg, he lost in a final. It was August 2004, and Wawrinka, then 19 years old and No. 159 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, fell to Jean-Rene Lisnard 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.

Since then, much has changed for Wawrinka. Namely, the Swiss No. 1 hardly loses in finals anymore. Wawrinka is 11-0 in his past 11 finals, including his US Open victory against Novak Djokovic earlier this month.

As the top seed at the St. Petersburg Open this week, the 31-year-old Wawrinka will try to make it 12 final victories in a row. “I have to make it to the final first,” he said during his pre-tournament press conference. “I hope to win more. So far I have achieved some impressive results.”

Wawrinka has had to beat some of the game’s best to win titles during the past few years. He’s beaten Djokovic twice, the other time at the 2015 Roland Garros, when Wawrinka earned his second Grand Slam tournament title. “Stanimal”, as Roger Federer nicknamed him in 2014, has also dispatched of Rafael Nadal, Federer, Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic, to name a few others. “Hopefully I can win more,” Wawrinka said.

In St. Petersburg, as Wawrinka has done in the past, he credited his coach, former ATP World Tour player Magnus Norman, for some of his success. Wawrinka also said his years of experience have helped. “Sometimes you get to your best tennis really a bit later, not when you’re 20 years old,” he said. “That’s my career… finally I could order all the pieces together and that’s why I am now playing my best tennis.”

Wawrinka chose to return to St. Petersburg this week partly because it had been so long. The allure of something new made the destination tempting.

“Every year you play almost the same calendar, the same tournaments. Some tournaments I have played 10 years in a row,” Wawrinka said. “When you have the chance to be in a new tournament, in a new city, you will always see something different, something nice to see.”

Wawrinka will open his stay with a familiar opponent. The top seed plays Czech Lukas Rosol in the second round. Wawrinka leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 5-0, including three wins this season. Their closest contest was at Roland Garros earlier this season, when the 6’5” Rosol pushed Wawrinka to five sets.

“Really tough opponent,” Wawrinka said. “I expect a tough one, that’s for sure.”