Stan Wawrinka is one of the players that knows how it feels to finish a Grand Slam tournament with a trophy above the head.
The Swiss player won a major three times, but in recent years, he struggled to find the same form as before, mostly because of injuries that were bothering him. Last time Wawrinka won a Grand Slam match was in 2021, when he defeated Pedro Sousa in the first round of the Australian Open.
He wanted to changed that in 2023, and he started well against world no. 53 Alex Molcan, who is coached by former coach of Novak Djokovic, Marian Vajda. The Swiss player dictated the pace of the match and his experience showed already in the first set.
Molcan was serving for the set, when he got a break to lead 6-5. However, Wawrinka broke back and won the first set in a tie-break. However, the second set was all about Molcan. He was broken in the first set, but then radically improved his serve and won the set 6-3 to level the score of the match.
In the third set, it was once against the Swiss player, who prevailed. He broke his opponent's serve twice and after just 32 minutes, won the third set 6-1.
Everything was going according to the plan for the three-time Grand Slam champion also in the fourth set. He got an early break and when he led 4-2, he had another chance to break and increase his lead.
However, he couldn't do that and so he had to rely on his serve, when he was serving for the match at 5-4. But Wawrinka couldn't win the match, and the set reached a tie-break. This time, Molcan proved to be a better player and won it 7-2 to take the match into a decider.
World no. 53 managed to get a double break in the fifth set, but that almost wasn't enough. Molcan was up 5-2 and had a match point, but Wawrinka got a break back and caused a trouble to his opponent once again when he was serving for the match.
But Molcan couldn't finish the job and beat Wawrinka in four hours and 24 minutes 6-7(3), 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-4. He will play against Vasek Pospisil or Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round.
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