Wawrinka recovers to beat Spanish foe

GSTAAD, Switzerland: Second seed Stanislas Wawrinka gave away a double break but regained the initiative to beat Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) on Wednesday in a nervous, but winning, start to the Swiss Open.
The Lausanne player looked to be cruising to a straightforward success against No. 62 Gimeno-Traver.
But the Spaniard had other ideas, recapturing both second set breaks — Wawrinka had a match point in the 12th game — and forcing the clay contest into a tiebreaker.
A 12th ace from the big-hitting 10th-ranked Swiss earned three more match points in the decider, with Gimeno-Traver saving the first with an ace before finally going down through a backhand error.
Wawrinka, winner of the clay title this year in Lisbon and runner-up at the Madrid Masters to Rafael Nadal, will take on another Spaniard when he plays Feliciano Lopez on Friday.
The fifth seed from Madrid earned a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.
Wawrinka was pleased with his great escape on front of home fans at this elite alpine venue located at 800 meters above sea level.
“It was not an easy match and I’m just glad to win it,” said Wawrinka, a 2005 finalist in Gstaad.
“It is always tough conditions here on fast clay and there was also wind.
“I’m very happy to go through, I’m having a good season and it’s important for me to try and follow through with this performance.
“Lopez is a tough lefty and I’ll have to play a solid match to beat him.”
The 2004 champion, and 17-time Grand Slam title winner, Roger Federer takes the top seeding but will not start until Thursday when he faces German Daniel Brands in the second round.
Federer will be willed to win by a capacity crowd, some of whom will be occupying the 800 additional seats installed in the expanded grandstands shortly after the tennis icon announced his return in the wake of a Wimbledon second-round disappointment last month.
History repeated itself on Tuesday in a welcoming ceremony, with Federer being presented on court with his second milk cow by the event organizers who did the same for him in 2003 after he won his first Wimbledon.
“She won’t be in my trophy room, that’s for sure,” joked Federer.
“Now I need to find a garage for a cow, although I have no idea what a cow garage looks like.”
Lopez got the day’s only win for Spain from four second-round matches.
Spaniards own two of the last three Gstaad titles through Nicolas Almagro and Marcel Granollers.
Lopez wasted no time in advancing, winning the opening set with a break of serve against Kuznetsov and then taking a 5-3 lead on his second break of the sunny afternoon before booking a last-eight place after little more than an hour.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez was crushed 6-1, 6-2 as Argentine Juan Monaco won his opening career match at the event.
There was more Spanish disappointment for Pablo Andujar, beaten in just over two hours, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 by Russian sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny.