Madrid Open 2023: Vintage Stan Wawrinka fights back to beat Maxime Cressy, sets up Andrey Rublev clash

Stan Wawrinka rolled back the years as he battled back from a set down to beat Maxime Cressy in the first round of the Madrid Open.

The 38-year-old claimed a 6-7(3) 6-4 7-6(4) victory in two hours and 27 minutes to set up a clash with fifth-seeded Monte Carlo champion Andrey Rublev.

Wawrinka, a 2013 runner-up in Madrid, is enjoying a late-career renaissance after climbing back into the top 100 at the start of the 2023 season.

Now ranked No. 84 in the world, Wawrinka showed signs of his vintage best as he produced a string of trademark fizzing backhand winners on his way to victory over Cressy.

Cressy, ranked No. 39, edged Wawrinka in a first-set tie-break but surrendered the second as the Swiss landed six aces and pounced on the only break point in game four.

The decider also went all the way to a tie-break, where Cressy earned an early mini-break at 3-1 only for Wawrinka to fight back, winning six of the next seven points and finishing things off in style with his third ace of the tie-break.

It was a fitting ending to a superb performance on serve, where the three-time major winner finished with 19 aces to Cressy’s nine and one double fault to the American’s 11 to go with his haul of 38 winners, 12 more than the 25-year-old.

Elsewhere on day one in the men’s draw, French qualifier Hugo Grenier sprung a surprise by beating Diego Schwartzman 7-5 6-4.

Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Quentin Halys and qualifier Yannick Hanfmann mounted comebacks to beat Ilya Ivashka, Alexei Popyrin and Juan Pablo Varillas respectively in three sets.

There were straight-sets wins for Alex Molcan, wildcard Hugo Gaston and Gregoire Barrere over Yibing Wu, Jeremy Chardy and Emilio Nava, while Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena overcame David Goffin 6-4 6-4.