Stan Wawrinka earned his first tour-level win of the season on Tuesday at the Tiriac Open presented by UniCredit Bank, where he defeated qualifier Timofey Skatov.
The Swiss, who turned 40 last Friday, recovered from squandering three match points in the second set to eventually triumph 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(1) at the ATP 250 event in Bucharest.
With his three-hour, 16-minute win, the former No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings recorded a tour-level victory in a 22nd different season (2003, 2005-2025), while he is just the third player aged 40 or over to win an ATP Tour or Grand Slam match on clay since 1980, joining Jimmy Connors and Ivo Karlovic.
Wawrinka will play second seed Pedro Martinez in the second round.
In other action, defending champion Marton Fucsovics made a winning return to Bucharest, where he overcame Italian Luca Nardi 6-3, 6-1. The Hungarian will play Mariano Navone in the second round in a rematch of last year’s final.
Eighth seed Camilo Ugo Carabelli arrived in Romania fresh off a run to the third round in Miami. The Argentine defeated Radu Albot 6-4, 6-3 in the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting and will next play qualifier Filip Misolic after the Austrian beat Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 6-4.
There was also victory for Argentina’s Francisco Comesana. Playing at a career-high No. 64 in the PIF ATP Rankings, the 24-year-old rallied from a set and 1-4 to down Slovakian qualifier Martin Klizan 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. Comesana, who won 80 per cent of his first serves according to Infosys ATP Stats, will take on fifth seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round following the Spaniard’s 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win against Buyunchaokete. Bautista Agut has now earned 100 tour-level victories on clay, winning two titles on the surface.
Canadian Gabriel Diallo set a second-round clash with top seed Sebastian Baez after he eliminated Chun-Hsin Tseng 7-6(5), 7-6(2).
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