Mason, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka was a come-from-behind third-round winner Thursday at the $3 million Western & Southern Open tennis event.
The third-seeded Swiss star dropped the first set against 14th-seeded Croat Marin Cilic before charging back for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory on the hardcourts at Lindner Family Tennis Center. Wawrinka dropped just three service points in an emphatic second set and closed out the victory in 83 minutes.
The hard-hitting Swiss also beat Cilic in Monte Carlo this year en route to his first-ever Masters 1000 title,
Wawrinka's quarterfinal opponent on Friday will be Frenchman Julien Benneteau, who got past struggling 6-foot-8 Pole Jerzy Janowicz 7-5, 6-1 on Day 5.
Also on Thursday, 15th-seeded fiery Italian Fabio Fognini cam back to beat Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
The winner of this Masters and U.S. Open Series tournament will earn $638,850.
