Stan Wawrinka crashes out of Aegon Championships

Stan Wawrinka reacts in his match against Kevin Anderson at the Queen’s club

Reigning French Open champion Stan Wawrinka was sent packing by big serving Kevin Anderson 7-6(4), 7-6(11) on Wednesday.

The match saw no breaks of serve indicating how well both players served. Wawrinka’s forehand, which was a weapon in the French Open let him down in both tie-breaks. Wawrinka made two errors in the first tie-break which enabled Anderson to build up a 5-1 lead.

The World No. 4 had a set point serving at 11-10 in the second breaker. He squandered it by making two uncharacteristic forehand errors. Anderson finished the match with a booming ace down the middle. The South African served 22 aces in the match.

It is Anderson’s fourth straight win over Wawrinka. Co-incidentally, both of Wawrinka’s first defeats after winning a Grand Slam have come against Anderson.

World No. 17 Anderson was pumped up after his win.

“I definitely tried to come in quite a bit, especially off my serves, trying to take away his block return a bit,” Anderson said.

“When he has time setting up from the baseline, he’s very dangerous. That’s definitely something I try to do, take time away from him a little bit. It gives me confidence knowing the guy I beat today just won the French Open. I can take that same sort of belief against some of the other top guys.”

In other results, Milos Raonic, who missed the French Open due to an injury beat Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1. Frenchman Gilles Simon was too good for young Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis in his 6-4, 6-2 win.

Anderson will take on Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the quarterfinal. The Spaniard took out Rafael Nadal’s conqueror Alexandr Dolgoplov 6-3, 7-6 (4).

Andy Murray will be in action on Thursday as he takes on Fernando Verdasco in the Round of 16.