Canadian Open 2022: 3 Factors that stood out in Emil Ruusuvuori's 1R win over Stan Wawrinka

Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland beat Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to move into the second round of the Canadian Open on Monday. The match lasted for two hours and 10 minutes. This was the first meeting between the two players.

Ruusuvuori will take on Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the second round on Wednesday.

On that note, let’s take a look at three factors that stood out in the match:

#1 Wawrinka handed an early advantage to Ruusuvuori as the Finn went on to win the first set

Ruusuvuori got off to a great start and raced to a 3-0 lead, breaking Wawrinka in the second game of the first set. The 37-year-old Swiss made five unforced errors in the first 12 points of the match, thus making the Finn’s job easier.

Wawrinka attempted to put too much power behind his shots and hit a few of them long. However, the Swiss cut down on the number of unforced errors thereafter and managed to hold his serve for the remainder of the first set. Still, Ruusuvuori did not lose his serve either and played the angular shots well to win the first set with relative ease.

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#2 Wawrinka bounced back to win the second set

Stan Wawrinka fought back well in the second set

Emil Ruusuvuori once again got an early advantage in the second set by breaking Wawrinka in the fifth game. However, Stan Wawrinka broke back in the subsequent game to level the score and then broke the Finn again in the eighth game to extend his lead to 5-3. The Swiss then served out the second set to draw level.

Wawrinka played the backhand slice more frequently in the second set to take pace off the ball. He also hit a few trademark down-the-line backhand winners. The two players engaged in a few tasty crosscourt forehand exchanges to entertain the crowd.

#3 Ruusuvuori asserted his supremacy in the third set

Both players succeeded in holding their serve for the first five games of the third set. However, Ruusuvuori got the decisive break in the sixth game to lead 4-2 and managed to hold on to his lead to win the set and the match.

Ruusuvuori approached the net more frequently in the third set to finish points with volley winners. He won 11 out of 14 net points in the match. Wawrinka, however, hit 29 winners in the match against Ruusuvuori’s 23.

Both Stan Wawrinka and Emil Ruusuvuori struggled with their second serves and managed to win only 41% and 44% of the points on them, respectively. However, the Finn won 73% of the points on his first serve against Wawrinka’s 56% and that made the difference in the end.