Andy Roddick will meet Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round of the Australian Open

Andy Roddick faces a difficult clash against Stanislas Wawrinka on Sunday, with a place in the quarterfinals at stake. The American No.1 bounced back from a first set loss to defeat Robin Haase 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the third round, and seems to be in decent form. He needs to be wary of his Swiss opponent here. Wawrinka has won all of his matches in Melbourne in straight sets. His most recent outing, where he swept aside Gael Monfils, indicates that he could really threaten Roddick here.

This pairing has a slightly unusual head to head history. Wawrinka leads 2-1, though both of his victories came through first set retirements. The only competitive match to be completed between the pair was played on a hard court in 2009, with Roddick securing a comfortable 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win. This bodes well for Roddick, though Wawrinka, the current world
No. 19, is likely to put up more of a fight this time around.

This match could easily turn out to be a grueling five-setter. The bad news for both players is that a quarterfinal match against either Roger Federer or Tommy Robredo awaits. Whilst Federer almost crashed out against Gilles Simon in round two, he’s been in scintillating form in recent months.