By Erik Gudris | Saturday, March 8, 2014
Stanislas Wawrinka proved he's ready to make a charge at Indian Wells with a convincing opening round win. Roger Federer and Andy Murray both struggled but made it through.
Photo Credit: Christopher Levy
Some wondered how No. 3 seed Stanislas Wawrinka might fare in his first tournament match back since winning the Australian Open. But the Swiss star answered all those questions with a convincing opening round win at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
Wawrinka took on big serving Ivo Karlovic who has proven in the past to be a difficult foe. Yet Wawrinka took command early by attacking his returns, especially when Karlovic charged the net.
That proved the case when Karlovic netted a Wawrinka return to give the Swiss No. 1 a 4-2 lead in the first set. Though Wawrinka would go on to win that set, the second set proved more of a challenge as Karlovic pushed things to 5-all.
But again Wawrinka made his move with aggressive returning that soon set up a break point. Karlovic responded by throwing in an ill-timed double fault to give Wawrinka a 6-5 lead.
Wawrinka, who never faced a break point all afternoon, closed out the 6-2, 7-5 win to the hearty approval of the Stadium 2 crowd.
Roger Federer, bidding for his fifth Indian Wells title, looked to be in total control of his early round contest versus France's Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Federer took the opening set and eventually served for the match at 5-4. But the wheels on Federer's smooth ride came off at the wrong time as Federer began to hit error after error. A wayward forehand from Federer allowed Mathieu back in at 5-all.
The main stadium crowd urged Federer on as he soon found himself in an unexpected tiebreak with Mathieu who soon climbed out to a 3-1 lead. But after Federer took back the advantage, a bad double fault from Mathieu allowed Federer to go up 5-3.
Finally with a forehand winner, Federer closed out the longer than expected 6-2, 7-6(5) win.
Murray Muddles Through As American Men Fall
No. 5 seed Andy Murray found himself having to work for his opening round win versus Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic earlier in the day. Rosol took the opening set and was up an early break in the second before Murray finally got things going.
Soon enough, Murray closed out the scratchy but still winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 effort that clinched his 300th career win on hard courts.
Murray will next face another Czech in former junior No. 1 Jiri Vesely.
Having home court advantage in Southern California didn't help several American men who found themselves making early exits.
U.S. No. 2 Sam Querrey battled against Italy's Andreas Seppi in the afternoon. Though Querrey dropped the first set, he took the second in a tiebreak. But Querrey never recovered from falling behind an early break in the third set as Seppi would go on to win 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-3.
Other Americans leaving the desert include Michael Russell who lost to Evgeny Donskoy 6-4, 6-3 while Tim Smyczek fell to Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6(3), 6-4.