Wawrinka breezes into quarters of Chennai Open

Gunning for a hat-trick of titles, defending champion Stan Wawrinka registered a clinical straight sets win over qualifier Andrey Rublev of Russia to storm into the quarterfinals of the Aircel Chennai Open here, here today.
Wawrinka, world ranked fourth, hardly broke his sweat to prevail 6-3 6-2 over his less-fancied opponent in the second round duel that lasted for just 52 minutes.
Earlier in the day, Ramkumar Ramanathan's good run at the Chennai Open continued as he combined with compatriot N Sriram Balaji to knock out fourth seeded Kiwi pair of Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniel to storm into the doubles quarterfinals.

The wild card Indian pair came from behind to shock the seasoned New Zealand duo 2-6 7-6 (5) 10-5 in the opening round.
It was the same Kiwi team that had beaten the Indian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni in last year's Davis Cup Asia/Oceania second round.
Ramkumar had yesterday shocked world number 98 Daniel Gimero-Traver 6-2 6-0 in his singles first round.

Ramkumar, who trains in Spain and Balaji, who trains in Germany came back well after losing the first set, in which they lost serve twice. Ramkumar was broken in the second game while Balaji in eighth.

The Indians broke Marcus in the third game to go one-up in the second set but Ramkumar dropped serve in the eighth. The scores were 5-5 in a neck-and-neck fight. They finally prevailed in the tie-breaker to stretch the match to Super Tie breaker.
In the deciding super tie break, the Indians led 4-2 and made it 8-4 before sealing the impressive win.
In the first match on center court today, 19-year-old Croat Borna Coric saw off the challenge of American Austin Krajicek 6-2 7-5 in 90 minutes.
Considered as a most improved youngster on the circuit, Coric compensated for his few unforced errors with his booming serves as he took the first set with a break in the seventh game.

The American fought much better in the second but Coric had every answer to his challenge. It was tight but Coric got the decisive break in 11th game and sealed the match in the next game.