Second seed Stanislas Wawrinka looks to make the last four for a third time in Gstaad.
Wawrinka made a comfortable start to his quest to win a first title on home soil, defeating Australian qualifier Peter Luczak 6-3, 7-5. Beating the world number 248 will hardly strike fear into the rest of the field but the first match on clay for some time is always a difficult one and Wawrinka will have been delighted with his serving (he won 81% of the points behind his first serve).
He’s come close in Gstaad twice before, losing in the 2005 final to Gaston Gaudio (remember him, former French Open champion !) and in the 2008 semi-finals to Victor Hanescu.
He will be strong favourite to make the last four again by overcoming eighth seed Granollers today. The Spaniard crushed two-time Gstaad runner-up Igor Andreev 6-1, 6-3 in the second round but Andreev has been out of sorts for some time.
Wawrinka beat him 6-4, 6-4 on clay last year but Granollers did gain revenge with a three set win at the Miami Masters back in March.
It’s always hard to predict results at this time of the year as the matches are more unpredictable than ever but the home support gives Wawrinka extra incentive to do well this week and he should pull through.
