Ruud beats Watunaki to reach last 16 at Japan Open
Dan Evans crashed out of the Stockholm Open in the first round in a shock straight-sets defeat to qualifier Filip Misolic, but Stan Wawrinka marched through.
Evans, seeded eighth in the Swedish capital, fell to a 6-4 7-6(1) defeat against Austria’s Misolic, ranked No. 181 in the world.
It was a disappointing setback for the 33-year-old Brit, who was knocked out by Carlos Alcaraz in the third round of the Shanghai Masters last week.
But it marked a big scalp for 22-year-old Misolic, who had not earned a Tour-level main draw win since making a run to the quarter-finals of the Bastad Open in July.
Misolic wrapped up victory in one hour and 40 minutes, landing eight aces to Evans’ five and 31 winners to his opponents’ 13.
He will face Gael Monfils or Marton Fucsovics next.
It was not the only shock of the day, as seventh seed Christopher Eubanks also fell at the first hurdle as qualifier Pavel Kotov earned a 6-7(2) 6-3 7-6(5) victory.
The fifth seed, Argentina’s Sebastian Baez, was also knocked out early, losing 6-7(5) 2-6 to J.J. Wolf of the United States.
Emil Ruusuvuori and Laslo Djere progressed by beating Benjamin Hassan and Leo Borg respectively.
Three-time major winner Wawrinka joined them in the second round after seeing off Borna Gojo 7-5 6-4 in 90 minutes.
It was a solid win for the 38-year-old Swiss after back-to-back first-round exits to Marcos Giron and Dusan Lajovic in his last two Tour outings in Astana and Shanghai.
Wawrinka broke Gojo’s serve three times and forced him to save 10 seven break points as he set up a second round date with Czech lucky loser Tomas Machac, who was given a bye through the first round.
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