Wawrinka saves three match points to top Evans in St Petersburg

St Petersburg, October 13

Stan Wawrinka saved three match points to achieve a comeback win over Dan Evans and reach the second round of the St Petersburg Open, after the tournament was disrupted by an unnamed player’s coronavirus case.

Serving to stay in the match at 5-6 down in the second, Wawrinka gave Evans three chances to seal the match but saved them all and then won the second-set tiebreaker and deciding set to complete a 3-6 7-6(3) 7-5 victory.

Wawrinka saved a match point in a win over Evans before, when he went on to win the 2016 US Open.

St Petersburg offers fifth-seeded Wawrinka a strong shot at his first title since his comeback from injury in 2018. He was a finalist and semifinalist in two previous appearances in St Petersburg, and his last two appearances in tour-level finals were both on indoor hard courts, the same surface as in St Petersburg.

Wawrinka next plays Evgeny Donskoy after the Russian wild card beat Egor Gerasimov 6-4 7-6(4).

Cameron Norrie managed a surprise win where his fellow British player Evans couldn’t. Norrie hit 16 aces on his way to a 6-4 4-6 6-3 win over the eighth-seeded Taylor Fritz.

Aslan Karatsev used his wild card to good effect by beating Tennys Sandgren 7-5 3-6 7-5 in their first-round match.

Alexander Bublik recovered from a set down to beat Mackenzie McDonald 2-6 7-6(2) 6-4.

An unnamed tennis player was withdrawn from the event after testing positive for the coronavirus, the ATP Tour said on Monday. The tour added the player was in isolation and “is currently asymptomatic”, and efforts were underway to identify people with whom the player had contact. AP