Share

Nadal survives Dimitrov scare as Wawrinka’s Basel woes continue

The Bulgarian had a strong start to the match, securing an early break of the 29-year-old, but Nadal responded by winning four games on the spin to take the first set 6-4.

Advertisement

Grigor Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s best male tennis player, was defeated by Rafael Nadal (Spain) in the second round of at ATP 500 tournament in Basel, Switzerland.

The French Open champion from Switzerland exited in the first round for the fourth straight year, beaten by Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4.

But Nadal held his nerve to draw level and then break serve in the eighth game before clinching victory in two hours 12 minutes.

Karlovic’s serve gave Wawrinka trouble throughout and he finished with 21 aces, never looking in danger once he got the all-important break in the third.

“After the first set, everything was good, I was playing well”. Out of sudden, that happened in the sixth game after Wawrinka failed to find his first services in that game, and he just faded away from the court.

Elsewhere in the opening round, fourth seed Kevin Anderson advanced over Croatian teenager Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 while seventh seed and last weekend’s Moscow champion Cilic beat Basel native Marco Chiudinelli 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).

Jack Sock won an all-American first-round match against Denis Kudla, 6-4, 6-2, to set up another in the next round. Karlovic will face Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic in the second round.

Cilic first plays Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russian Federation, who beat Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

Advertisement

In the second round, 2014 finalist David Goffin made the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Adrian Mannarino.

Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in action during the Swiss Indoors ATP 500 tennis tournament against Stan Wawrinka