In a battle of former finalists, Stan Wawrinka won a slugfest against sixth seed Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-6(3) on Thursday to return to the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals.
The Swiss was 1-4 during his past four appearances at the ATP Masters 1000 event. But the 34-year-old has turned it around in the Spanish capital this week and will next face the winner of second seed Rafael Nadal and #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe.
Wawrinka fell to Nadal in the 2013 Madrid final and trails the Spaniard 3-17 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. But the Swiss does own a clay-court win against Nadal, in 2015 Rome. Wawrinka and Tiafoe have never met.
The Swiss started quickly against Nishikori, breaking the Japanese in the second game and never facing a break point in the opening set.
The two were trading punishing rallies in the second, but Wawrinka, growing increasingly vocal, pulled away in the tie-break. After he brought up three consecutive match points, Wawrinka shouted, “Come on!” The 34-year-old, who has yet to drop a set this week, finished with 25 winners to 16 unforced errors.
Wawrinka last reached a Masters 1000 semi-final in 2017 at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (d. Carreno Busta).
from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2DTfdOf
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