Stan Wawrinka suffered another early loss as he lost his first round match at the the Sofia Open, going down to Marius Copil 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 on Monday.
With injuries having had their effect on the now-world number 57, Wawrinka would have come into this encounter wanting to get back into rhythm as he looks at the rest of the season. And when he won the first set in just 23 minutes, thanks to a break of Copil serve in the sixth game, it looked like he was getting back to his best.
A finalist last year at the Sofia Open, Copil fought back in the second, and took the set into a tie-break which he won to five points. And then a break of serve in the third set put Copil on the road to his first ever win over Wawrinka.
Copil acknowledged he was happy to kick-start proceedings with a victory over the former three-time Grand Slam winner. He added:
“I made a few mistakes at the beginning. I had to change things, I knew I had to stay in the game after losing the first set. I served well today. The serve has always been my main weapon.”
Copil will now take on the winner of another first round match where Fernando Verdasco, seeded sixth will take on Alexandar Lazarov.
Some of the other players in action at the Sofia Open this year include the top seed Karen Khachanov, who has a bye to the second round along with the second seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas, a recent semi-finalist at the Australian Open. Both will await the completion of the first round matches to know whom they play in their opening match of the competition.
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