Albert Ramos-Vinolas will be contesting the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of his career when he takes the court against Stan Wawrinka on Wednesday at Roland Garros. This is just one of many matches that have been postponed by rain.
Stan Wawrinka and Albert Ramos-Vinolas will be squaring off for the seventh time in their careers and for the second time in two weeks when they battle for a place in the French Open semifinals on Wednesday–weather permitting, of course.
They just faced each other in their final pre-Roland Garros warmup event at the Geneva Open, where Wawrinka issued a 6-1, 6-1 double-breadstick of the underdog Spaniard. That improved the Swiss’ perfect record in the head-to-head series to 6-0, which includes a 3-0 mark on clay. Wawrinka is 13-2 in total sets at Ramos-Vinolas’ expense (6-1 on the red stuff).
As Ramos-Vinolas’ recent Geneva result suggests, his surprising run in Paris has come from pretty much out of nowhere. He had been just 14-16 for the 2016 campaign prior to this fortnight and had won back-to-back matches at only one of his last eight tournaments (a quarterfinal trip to the 250-point event in Istanbul). But a favorable draw and a sudden surge in form have carried Ramos-Vinolas past Horacio Zeballos, Marco Trungelliti, Jack Sock (in five sets), and Milos Raonic.
Wawrinka also endured one five-setter on his way to the last eight, and it came right off the bat against Lukas Rosol. After recovering from a two sets to one deficit to outlast Rosol, the fourth-ranked Swiss picked up the pace to make easier work of Taro Daniel, Jeremy Chardy, and Viktor Troicki. Wawrinka is ultimately aiming for a second consecutive title at Roland Garros and for a fourth winner’s trophy of this season.
Whereas the No. 3 seed is the defending champion, Ramos-Vinolas is playing in his first-ever slam quarterfinal. It goes without saying that the nerves will on full display, especially in the early stages of the contest. A more confident Ramos-Vinolas should make this more competitive than their Geneva encounter (which is not saying a lot!), but absolutely all signs point to one-way traffic in Wawrinka’s favor.
Pick: Wawrinka in 3
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WWW?
I think almost anything can happen at this point with the bad weather and trying to cram in all of the matcha that were postponed.
On paper this should be a routine outing for Stan.
Stan for the win in 3 sets.
Ir should be yes with Stan maybe giving up one set… Will check on the weather first though and see if this takes place
Stan in three but ARV could make it interesting.
Stan was granted a stay of execution 🙂 The rain delay gave him time to regroup and ARV’s momentum to be disrupted.
He will overwhelm Albert when they play today.