Wawrinka suffers a body blow to London hopes; Federer turns unwitting beneficiary

Stanislas Wawrinka

Stanislas Wawrinka took a massive blow to his hopes of qualifying for London when he lost his first round match against Edouard Roger-Vasselin at the  Swiss Indoors Basel ATP World Tour 500 event. With 3,150 points in the bag, Wawrinka had a narrow 5 point margin over his compatriot Roger Federer, who is languishing in eighth place on the list. Even though the 7th ranked Swiss had no points to defend at Basel, it was important for him to use the clean slate to accumulate some valuable points to secure his spot at the finale. In the event, Wawrinka’s loss works to the advantage of Federer who shall meet Denis Istomin on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals.

After both men held to love to start the match, it was the Frenchman who enjoyed the first opening of the match at 15-40 in the third game. But the Swiss player saved both break points to keep the set on serve. The 65th ranked Frenchman was forced to save a break point too in the next game even as they kept it steady to 3-3 in the first set.

Roger-Vasselin was already bothering the inconsistent Swiss, who was finding it rather difficult to land his first serve. Wawrinka wilted finally when he slipped to 0-40 in the seventh game, where the 65th ranked Edouard pounced to draw first blood. The Frenchman had lost the only previous meeting between the duo, but was playing with confidence as he swept his way to the first set at his first opportunity.

Wawrinka compounded his problems immediately when he lost serve in the first game of the second set. That break proved to be decisive as Roger-Vasselin showed great composure to save breakpoints in the second and sixth games to retain his one break advantage in the second set. After an hour and 12 minutes on the court, Wawrinka threw in his fifth double fault to surrender the match 4-6, 3-6. He will need a big result at Paris to revitalise his chances of making a maiden appearance at the elite final event.

The result pushed Federer into seventh place in an intensifying race, ahead of Wawrinka with Richard Gasquet just 30 points behind in ninth place. Gasquet is scheduled to take on Michael Llodra in his first round match on Wednesday with an opportunity to further strengthen his case for Fujairah. Denis Istomin earned the right to challenge Federer in the second round of the tournament with a hard fought 7-5, 7-6 over Horacio Zeballos.

Sixth seeded Kei Nishikori proved too good for a 32 year old Swiss player – not Federer, but Marco Chiudinelli. The Japanese player was 6-2, 6-4 victor over the lesser known Swiss player who happens to be a close friend of Federer. Marcos Baghdatis may have gathered an unenviable collection of cars with a straight set victory over Benjamin Becker, 7-6 (8), 6-1.

The Cypriot has endured a series of bad matches as he slips straight back into the dressing room of its prestigious customers. Baghdatis is likely to play Juan Martin Del Potro in the second round. The Argentine is set to play Henri Laaksonen, a wild card, in the first round on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Daniel Brands got the better of 7th seeded Andreas Seppi 7-6, 6-3 even as he recorded his 42nd birthday.

With barely a couple of weeks left for the party at London, it is obvious that every match gains prominence and it isn’t essential.