The emergence of Stan Wawrinka from the shadow of his distinguished Swiss compatriot Roger Federer continues apace.
Having captured the French Open title last month, he has now reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon – the least successful Grand Slam venue for him, to date – for the second straight year by defeating Belgium’s David Goffin 7-6(3), 7-6(7), 6-4, in two hours 23 minutes on No.1 Court.
This was Wawrinka’s 17th win in 11 years of competing at Wimbledon, compared with 28 victories at the Australian Open, where he was champion last year, 27 at Roland Garros and 26 at the US Open.
But he was made to work hard for a place in the last eight, where he will face Richard Gasquet of France, by the solid, dogged and at times inspired play of Goffin.
The opening set was, for a long time, conducted in tentative fashion, with Wawrinka struggling to come to terms with his most effective opponent, despite having been a comfortable winner of his two previous matches against Goffin.
He made 14 unforced errors and his total of four aces was matched by the same number of double-faults. But when the set moved into a tie-break it seemed to galvanise the Swiss, who surged into a 4-1 lead, which he boosted with an ace before sealing the set with a mis-hit backhand drop shot.
He acknowledged it with an apologetic, uplifted hand but he had the advantage and proceeded to build on it by breaking for a 2-1 lead in the second set.
It was a similar stroke of good fortune which earned Goffin immediate retaliation with a break of the Wawrinka serve, obtained when a shot which was heading for the tramlines struck the tape and deflected onto the line, forcing a surprised Swiss to strike his reply long.
After surviving a brace of break points at 5-5, Goffin fared much better in the second tie-break, leading it 5-4 and then having set point at 7-6, only for Wawrinka to sweep to the next three points.
Goffin’s resistance might have been dented but he was certainly not down, as he showed by breaking to lead the third set 3-2, which he extended to 4-2 before the Swiss unleashed his most effective spell of the match, sprinting through the next four games at a cost of just five points.
Goffin did not help his own cause by going match point down with only his second double-fault of the afternoon, but it was a shot of the highest class, a searing forehand down the line, which sealed the victory for Wawrinka. It was his fourth successive win in straight sets.
“It was a tough one,” is how Wawrinka summed it up. “But I am really happy with the victory, especially in three sets. I wasn’t moving great and was a little bit soft in general. But I am happy to get through. This was an important victory for me.”