Tennis News: Pablo Carreno Busta holds off Stan Wawrinka in the Nordea Open

World No. 18 Pablo Carreno Busta faced a tough first-round draw against former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka at Nordea Open. The 37-year-old Swiss was playing his sixth tournament since spending more than a year off the court due to a foot injury. Stan Wawrinka fired bursts of explosive groundstrokes, but Pablo Carreno Busta raised his level at the right moments to advance to the second round at the ATP 250 event.

Pablo Carreno Busta went into the tournament with a win-loss ratio of 1-4 on clay courts since losing to Carlos Alcaraz Garfia in the final of the Barcelona Open in April. Stan Wawrinka fired ten aces and won 90% of the points on the first serve to dominate his Spanish opponent. However, Pablo Carreno Busta held firm and converted two of his six break point opportunities to seal his victory after one hour and 24 minutes of play.

The victory improved the ATP Head2Head of Pablo Carreno Busta against Stan Wawrinka to 1-3. The 31-year-old Spaniard has advanced to the quarterfinals at Nordea Open twice and will look to do so again. 

In a post-match interview, Pablo Carreno Busta said, “I am happy because I thought my level was good. I played very solid from the baseline. It was a bit difficult with the wind, but I thought my serve was very good throughout the match. It was very important to my game.”

In the second round, Pablo Carreno Busta will face the winner of the first-round clash between compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina.

Home hope Elias Ymer wong against Daniel Altmaier of Germany in straight sets after a hard-fought 6-4, 7-6(5) victory. The 26-year-old wild card will lock horns with third seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina for a quarterfinal spot on July 13.

In another first-round match of the day, Laslo Djere of Serbia advanced to the second round after beating Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-3, 7-5. The Serb broke the serve of his Italian opponent four times and dropped just six points to emerge victorious at his maiden appearance at the Nordea Open.