Novak Djokovic beats Stanislas Wawrinka to reach the last eight – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
World number one, Novak Djokovic, booked a spot in the quarter-final of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday at the expense of the Swiss tennis icon, Stanislas Wawrinka. He stole the first set win in a tie-breaker and eased to a straight
sets triumph 7-6(5), 6-4.
A battle of an hour and 45 minutes witnessed a tight matchup between the two powerhouses. Both players were contesting for the 14th time in their professional careers and the Swiss had just defeated the Serb twice. It
was obvious that it will be a major upset of the tournament if the 21st ranked Swiss was able to register a win.
No breakpoints were witnessed throughout the first set. Djokovic was stunning with his first serves as always but the main point to note was that Wawrinka also troubled his opponent on his first serves and denied him of seven breakpoints.
A remarkable resistance in the opening set enforced a tie-breaker round into play and the Serb inched his nose ahead utilizing all his experience. He played a couple of drop shots along with a mind-startling winner to cover the
initial trail and take a lead. Wawrinka played his part but wasn’t able to stay consistent in the tie-breaker that led to his downfall.
The second set witnessed an early breakpoint for the Serb who took a resounding lead of 3-1 upfront. He continued to hammer his opponent and registered the second breakthrough in the seventh game that gave him an unassailable lead
of 5-2.
However, the Swiss fought back immediately to keep the set alive and diminish the trail to 3-5 but he couldn’t repeat the heroics for the second time on Djokovic’s serve and lost the battle. The Serb won 35 points in total including
three powerful aces whilst his competitor bagged 22 points featuring two aces.
Novak Djokovic is scheduled to take on his compatriot, the seventh seed Janko Tipsarevic, in the round of the last eight.
Earlier in the day, the Spanish number one and defending champion, Rafael Nadal, witnessed a major upset when he lost to his compatriot, the 15th seed Fernando Verdasco, in a heroic three-setter.
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