Gaudio smashes Wawrinka's dreams at Gstaad
Argentina’s Gaston Gaudio has won the Swiss Open in the mountain resort of Gstaad in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
He defeated Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, who was competing in the first ATP tour final of his senior career.
It was Gaudio’s fourth clay-court title of the season. The second-seeded Argentine took less than two hours to complete his victory over the Swiss newcomer.
Wawrinka managed to trouble Gaudio with his powerful serve, firing 13 aces, but Switzerland’s number two showed his inexperience by producing a string of unforced errors.
Gaudio conceded just six points on his own service and comfortably wrapped up the opening set.
Wawrinka’s aggressive style paid off briefly in the second set when he finally broke Gaudio - last year’s French Open champion - with a sequence of well-struck winners to take a 4-2 lead.
But the home crowd’s excitement was soon dampened as the Swiss player then threw his next two service games.
"It’s always tough to play a final, even if I have won three tournaments already this year," Gaudio said. "I can definitely understand how it feels for [Wawrinka] to be playing his first final here in front of his home crowd."
Wawrinka conceded he had been nervous.
"It was always going to be difficult playing against someone like Gaudio and I was really struggling against some of the high-bouncing balls he was producing," he said.
First tour final
It was the first time that Wawrinka, who boasts a French Open title from the 2003 junior competition, reached a singles final of an ATP tournament.
The 20-year-old is only the fifth Swiss player in the Gstaad Open era, which began in 1915, to make it to the final.
He secured his place in the last round with a semi-final win over the Romanian qualifier Razvan Sabau.
The world number one, Switzerland’s Roger Federer, did not take part in this year’s Gstaad tournament after winning the $502,000 (SFr652,300) competition in 2004.
The three-times Wimbledon champion is expected to rejoin the professional circuit for the Masters Series in Montreal on August 8.
swissinfo with agencies
Key facts
Recent winners of the Gstaad Open: Roger Federer (2004), Jiri Novak (2003).
Stanislaw Wawrinka, ranked 69th in the world, is Switzerland’s number two.
It was the first time in his professional career that Wawrinka made it to an ATP final.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.