Wawrinka Battles Past Paire In Rome

Stan Wawrinka battled back to beat his good friend Benoit Paire and move into the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Tuesday. Wawrinka, the No. 4 seed in Rome, won 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 against the World No. 21.

After Paire grabbed the opener, Wawrinka earned three breaks to cruise in the second set. During the final set, Paire double faulted to give Wawrinka the break at 1-2, and the Swiss held at love to go up 4-1. He wouldn’t drop a game the remainder of the one-hour and 50-minute match. Paire fell to 5-22 against Top 10 opponents.

Wawrinka next will play Juan Monaco, who also came back from a set down to win his second-round match. The Argentine beat No. 16 seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

David Goffin also advanced into the third round. The No. 12 seed won 74 per cent of his first-serve points to beat American Jack Sock in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. Goffin will face Tomas Berdych in the third round. Berdych leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0, but both matches were on hard courts.

No. 15 seed Roberto Bautista Agut improved his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against home-favorite Paolo Lorenzi to 2-0. Bautista Agut won 6-3, 6-1 against the Italian in the first-round matchup. He will face Jeremy Chardy in the second round.

Lucky loser Lucas Pouille took advantage of his luck with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win against Ernests Gulbis to move into the third round.