Stan Wawrinka battles to win over Lukas Rosol at French Open
Tuesday 24 May 2016 10:08, UK
Defending champion Stan Wawrinka survived a big scare in his opening-round match at the French Open, fighting back for a five-set win over Lukas Rosol.
The Swiss world No 4, who toppled Novak Djokovic in last year's final, made a sluggish start to his title defence and was one set away from an early exit before battling back to complete a 4-6 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-4 first round win.
Wawrinka had to defend two break points in the fourth set as he avoided the ignominy of becoming the first reigning men's singles champion at Roland Garros since tennis turned professional in 1968 to lose in the first round.
The two-time Grand Slam title winner had warmed up for the tournament by winning the Geneva Open, but struggled at first against world No 59 Rosol in the cold and damp conditions on the Philippe Chatrier Court.
Rosol had previously pulled off an upset win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2012 and the Czech was threatening another memorable win until Wawrinka ripped a backhand across court to move 5-3 ahead in the fourth set.
After breaking again in the decider, Wawrinka finally broke Rosol's resistance, tucking away his third match point with a volley to set up a second round match against Japan's Taro Daniel.
Kei Nishikori is also through to the second round after he completed his rain interrupted match with Simone Bolelli, sealing a 6-1 7-5 6-3 win.
The fifth seed quickly secured a break when play resumed in the third set and fired down an ace to book his next match against Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov.
But there was a shock for 10th seed Marin Cilic, whose tournament ended in the first round when he went down 7-6 3-6 6-4 6-2 to unheralded Argentinian Marco Trungelliti, who is ranked 166 in the world.
