Wawrinka Into Geneva QFs

Top seed and defending champion Stan Wawrinka has been gently eased into this year’s Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open, moving through his opening-round match on Wednesday after 37 minutes when Rogerio Dutra Silva was forced to retire with a right ankle injury. The local favourite led 5-2 in the first set.

“This was very unlucky for Rogerio. He was playing very well lately and I hope that he will be fine,” said Wawrinka. “It will be important to play matches and spend time on the court.” “Querrey is a very dangerous player who’s had a lot of important victories in his career,” said Wawrinka. “He had match points against Thiem last week. He has a huge serve and hits the ball very hard.”

The World No. 3 in the Emirates ATP Rankings improves to 6-1 in Geneva and 3-3 on clay this season. He defeated Marin Cilic in last year’s final to win his first title on home soil.

Next up for Wawrinka in the quarter-finals is Sam Querrey, who lost only three of his first-service points in a 6-2, 6-3 win over qualifier Franko Skugor. The Swiss star leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 4-1.

“Querrey is a very dangerous player who’s had a lot of important victories in his career,” said Wawrinka. “He had match points against Thiem last week. He has a huge serve and hits the ball very hard.”

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Albert Ramos-Vinolas and John Isner, who have both performed well on the European clay this year, both made early exits on Wednesday.

Andrey Kuznetsov overcame third seed Ramos-Vinolas 7-5, 6-1 in 89 minutes to reach the quarter-finals for the second straight year. Ramos-Vinolas, the Sao Paulo and ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo finalist, has reached the last eight in eight tournaments this season.

He’ll play lucky loser Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, who advanced after Janko Tipsarevic retired due to illness in their second-round match. The 26-year-old German, currently No. 314 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, led 6-4, 0-1, is through to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since July 2012 in Stuttgart.

Qualifier Mischa Zverev saved all four break points he faced and struck 11 aces to beat fourth seed Isner 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 in two hours. Five days ago, Mischa’s younger brother, Alexander Zverev, beat Isner in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia semi-finals.

“Clay is not my preferred surface, but I am happy that I changed my game today and didn’t serve-volley,” said Zverev. “I served well and that helps a lot. My next opponent, Steve Johnson, plays well on clay and has a good kick serve, and a heavy forehand which is good here in Geneva. He is playing very well.”

Isner’s compatriot, fifth seed Steve Johnson fared better on day four at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament. This year’s Houston titlist Johnson needed just 51 minutes to beat Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 6-3.

DOUBLES

Top seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau needed just 67 minutes to breeze into the semi-finals over Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya 6-1, 6-4. Next up for Rojer/Tecau is Dutra Silva and Paolo Lorenzi or Scott Lipsky and Leander Paes.

Second seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah survived a late surge from Johnson and Querrey to reach the final four 6-0, 7-6(6). They’ll now play either third seeds Treat Huey and Robert Lindstedt or wild cards Johan Nikles and Tim Puetz.