MELBOURNE, Australia — Stan Wawrinka advanced to the Australian Open quarterfinals, the champion battling past Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in four sets on Monday.
In 2014, Garcia-Lopez was Wawrinka's reminder that grand slam tennis was not all smooth sailing.
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Wawrinka reminded Garcia-Lopez of the status quo — the Swiss was the defending champion, the Spaniard was in new territory. Never before had Garcia-Lopez reached the fourth round at Melbourne Park, like Wawrinka had never won a major 12 months ago.
But Garcia-Lopez did not create his own history, Wawrinka instead added to his own remarkable narrative in Australia — the fourth seed progressing 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 4-6 7-6 (10-8) in three hours, two minutes.
The pair's previous meeting was in the first round of the 2014 French Open, and freshly-crowned major champion Wawrinka was humbled in four sets by Garcia-Lopez. The signs of a repeat were good early for the Spaniard — but a leaky roof came at the wrong time for him, as the cleanup halted play after he had broken for a 3-2 lead in the first set.
Wawrinka broke back to love at the resumption, but Garcia-Lopez would still have the chance to serve for the first set — only to be broken to 15 in the 10th game.
The opportunity missed came back to hurt him in the tie-break, which Wawrinka claimed courtesy of back-to-back aces. They saw his winner count hit 20 for the first set, with Wawrinka the aggressor of the two — compared to Garcia-Lopez's 12 winners. Wawrinka broke in the fourth game of the second set and it would be all he required to build a two-set lead, serving out the 10th game with three winners and an unreturnable serve.
A double fault in the third game saw Garcia-Lopez trail again by a break deficit, and the world No. 37 was looking down the barrel of straight sets defeat. But the veteran battled back gamely and took the set — needing only two break-point chances and benefitting from 18 unforced errors from Wawrinka.
Garcia-Lopez was on the verge of forcing a fifth set when he led 6-2 in the fourth set tie-break, but Wawrinka gamely saved those set points — plus another at 7-8 — to avoid a decider.