Mutua Madrid Open 2019: Stan Wawrinka Battles Past Kei Nishikori

Published 05/09/2019, 12:13 PM EDT

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Stan Wawrinka defeated the World No. 7, Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6 in the third round of the Mutua Madrid open 2019. With this victory, he reaches the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open 2019.

It was the battle for the place in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open 2019 as Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka met for the 11th time in their career at the Mutua Madrid Open 2019, on Thursday. The two have been the runner-ups of the Madrid Open before. The Swiss leads their head-to-head 7-4. Wawrinka also won their last match at Rotterdam at the beginning of the season.

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Madrid has undoubtedly been Nishikori’s most successful tournament of his career. He reached the finals in 2014 but lost against Rafael Nadal. Nishikori then made it to the semi-finals in the next two years. He also reached the last 8 in 2013 and 2017.  But the Japanese struggled a bit against Hugo Dellien in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open 2019.

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On the other hand, Wawrinka hasn’t had the best time in the capital of Spain. Though he reached the finals in 2013, he has not been consistent enough at the Madrid Masters. But the Swiss started his Mutua Madrid 2019 Open campaign with convincing straight sets victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert. He also defeated Guido Pella in the second round of Mutua Madrid Open 2019 in straight sets. Guido Pella has won the most number of matches on clay in the 2019 season.

Stan Wawrinka dominated the first set. Wawrinka got a break up with both the players holding their serve until the end of the set as Wawrinka won the set 6-3. Stan took advantage of the only break point he played on Nishikori’s serve, while Nishikori did not face a single break point on Wawrinka’s serve.

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The Japanese came back stronger in the second set as he held his service games strongly. He got a chance to break Wawrinka but could not capitalize on it. Both the players held their service game until the tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was controlled by the three-time grand slam champion as he won the tie-breaker 7-3. Wawrinka won the 3rd straight match against Kei Nishikori in straight sets.

Stan will face either Rafael Nadal or Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open 2019.

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Varun Khanna

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Starting off as a tennis author in 2018, Varun Khanna has gone on to contribute to EssentiallySports in various capacities. After setting up interviews with the likes of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Alizé Cornet, and Noah Rubin, Varun is now part of all major ATP and WTA press conferences and has gone on to pen more than 1300 articles for EssentiallySports. He now heads the tennis and NBA division of the organization.
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