Wawrinka Survives Stakhovsky In Marseille

History doesn’t always repeat itself.

Stan Wawrinka saved two match points in a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(8) second-round win over Sergiy Stakhovsky in Marseille on Wednesday. Last year, the Ukrainian got the better of Wawrinka in the quarter-finals of the Open 13 Provence, but this time, the Swiss hit two unplayable serves in the deciding tie-break to stave off elimination, then landed a backhand pass on his second match point to seal the win in two hours.

The top-seeded Swiss, playing in his first match since the Australian Open (l. to Raonic), improved to 8-1 on the season and is gunning for his second title of the year (Chennai). Stakhovsky came to net 62 times in the pair’s third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting (Wawrinka now leads 2-1) but was on the receiving end of 49 Wawrinka winners, the last one on the final point of the match.

Wawrinka’s quarter-final opponent will be good friend and eighth seed Benoit Paire, or French qualifier Vincent Millot, who beat Rotterdam semi-finalist Nicolas Mahut 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-3.

Rising star Quentin Halys fought his way into the second round with a 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3 win over qualifier David Guez. The 19-year-old wild card claimed his first tour-level win at the Australian Open (d. Dodig) and is currently No. 171 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. He will face Andrey Kuznetsov for a place in the final eight.

No. 6 seed David Goffin advanced to the quarter-finals when Mischa Zverev retired with the Belgian leading 6-1, 2-0.