Wawrinka Rolls In Home Tournament

Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka made the home crowd happy on Tuesday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. The World No. 4 took only 53 minutes to bypass Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-1 and move into the quarter-finals of his home tournament. Wawrinka, the No. 1 seed, received a first-round bye.

He improved to 6-0 against Ramos-Vinolas, No. 53 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. Wawrinka has won two titles so far this season, the Aircel Chennai Open in January and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February. But the defending Roland Garros champion has failed to string three consecutive wins together since Dubai.

He’ll next face Pablo Carreno Busta, who beat Inigo Cervantes 6-2, 6-4. Wawrinka won their previous meeting, a three-set contest on clay in 2013.

Reigning Geneva champion Thomaz Bellucci looked eager to defend his title. Bellucci erased all three break points and slid past Mikhail Kukushkin 6-2, 6-1. The Brazilian will face sixth seed Federico Delbonis. The Argentine leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 4-2, all of which have been played on clay.

Rajeev Ram improved to 2-1 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Evgeny Donskoy. The American hit 10 aces and prevailed against the Russian qualifier 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and seven minutes. Ram broke Donskoy at 3-2 in the final set and later served for the win. The 32 year old will face Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Denis Istomin ended Florian Mayer’s good luck in Geneva. Mayer, who was a lucky loser, lost to Istomin for the third time, 6-2, 6-3. Istomin erased the lone break point faced and won in 57 minutes. He’ll play No. 2 seed David Ferrer, who received a first-round bye. Ferrer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-1, including a clay-court win in 2013 at the Mutua Madrid Open.

DAY 4 PREVIEW: No. 3 seed Marin Cilic and No. 4 seed John Isner return to the ATP World Tour on Wednesday when they play in the second round of the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. The 6-foot-6 Cilic and 6-foot-10 Isner missed ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events at Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome due to knee injuries. Isner, whose last match came on April 10, begins play against Lukas Rosol. Cilic, who has not played since March 27, opens against fellow 27-year-old Ernests Gulbis.

Also on Court Central, Ferrer makes his Geneva debut against Istomin. Ranked 12th, Ferrer is outside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings this week for the first time since October 10, 2010. Though the 34-year-old Spaniard is 16-9 in 2016, he has yet to play in a final – his longest drought to start a season since 2006. Istomin, too, is struggling by his standards. The Uzbek is 4-12 in 2016 and has not reached a quarter-final since St. Petersburg last September.

Bellucci was also off to a slow start this season, losing seven straight matches after advancing to the Quito final. Last week in Rome, the Brazilian beat Gael Monfils and Nicolas Mahut before falling to World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Though he lost the match, Bellucci became the first player since Roger Federer at Cincinnati in 2012 to sweep six games in a set from the Serb.

Bellucci meets Delbonis in the second match on Court Central. All eight players competing on Court Central have captured an ATP World Tour title, though Delbonis is the only one to do so in 2016. He won a clay-court championship at Marrakech on April 10 and is fifth among all players in clay-court wins this season.