Chennai, India (SportsNetwork.com) - Reigning champion Stan Wawrinka opened his new year with a straight-set victory Wednesday at the season-opening Chennai Open.
The top-seeded Australian Open titlist handled 18-year-old rising Croat Borna Coric 6-1, 6-4 on the hardcourts at SDAT Tennis Stadium.
The two-time Chennai champ Wawrinka, who also titled here in 2011 and was the runner-up in 2010, beat Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin in last year's final. The world No. 4 star's quarterfinal opponent will be Luxembourg's Gilles Muller.
In other action involving seeds, No. 4 Belgian David Goffin held off Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1) and a No. 8 Muller doused Swedish wild card Elias Ymer 6-4, 6-3.
One other result saw Austria's Andreas Haider-Maurer come back to best Czech Jiri Vesely 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-4. Haider-Maurer will meet Goffin in the round of eight.
On Thursday, second-round action will come for seeded Spaniards Feliciano Lopez, Roberto Bautista Agut and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, as well as sixth- seeded Taiwanese Yen-Hsun Lu.
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