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Stan Wawrinka is yet to drop a set at the French Open and will be looking to keep his strong run of form going when he takes on inconsisten 28th seed Fabio Fognini. Join The Roar for live scores from around 11pm (AEST).
After some ordinary showings to start the clay court season, ‘Stan the man’ has finally hit his straps, with the former French Open champion finally getting his booming backhand working for him.
His run of form started in Geneva, during the final week before the second grand slam of the year as he went through four convincing matches, beating Mischa Zverev in the final and it’s continued over to Paris.
He his yet to drop a set at the second grand slam of the year, blasting past Jozef Kovalik and Alexandr Dolgopolov in the first couple of rounds.
Wawrinka has dominated on his own serve and continually heaped pressure onto his opponents serve, generally finding it pretty easy to pick up breaks.
If he continues to play that way here, Fognini will be no match for him, despite the veteran Italian playing on what is his dominant surface.
It’s not just a preferred surface for Fognini – it’s the only surface he has had success on throughout his career, but his build to this year’s French Open has been a little disappointing, to say the least with inconsistent form being the trend.
After first round exits in Monte Carlo, Budapest and Munich, he got his first win on clay in Madrid, then another two in Rome but has struggled to string together two good sets, let alone two good matches.
His struggled continued in the first round of the French Open as he took five sets to go past Francis Tiafoe, before he played his best match of the clay court season, getting over Andreas Seppi in straight sets.
The pair have met on six previous occasions, with Wawrinka winning five of them. Fognini has always been a thorn in the side though, taking many of their matches, most of them on clay, to three sets.
Prediction
Wawrinka will win. But just how convincingly is the question? Fognini is likely to turn it on at different points and when he gets on a run we would be in for some thrilling tennis, but ultimately Wawrinka will have too much.
Wawrinka in four sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this third round French Open match from around 11pm (AEST) or at the completion of Daria Kasatkina versus Simona Halep on Suzanne-Lenglen court and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.