• ATP Swiss Indoors

Wawrinka World Tour Finals bid hit by Basel defeat

ESPN staff
October 22, 2013

Stanislas Wawrinka's prospects of playing in his first ATP World Tour Finals took a huge hit by a 6-4 6-3 first-round defeat to Edouard Roger-Vasselin in front of his home crowd at the Swiss Indoors.

The eighth-ranked Swiss struggled with his service, landing barely one-third of his first serves.

At age 29, Frenchman Roger-Vasselin got his first career victory against a top-10 player.

Wawrinka, a US Open semi-finalist last month, is eighth in the points race to secure a place in the eight-man finals lineup in London next month.

The ninth-placed player after next week's Paris Masters will advance, because Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has ended his season following back surgery.

Wawrinka is under pressure from French pair Richard Gasquet, who begins in Basel Wednesday, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

There were no such problems for sixth-seed Kei Nishikori, who breezed past Marco Chiudinelli 6-2 6-4, but Andreas Seppi, ranked seventh, went down 7-6(3) 6-3 to Daniel Brands.

Marcos Baghdatis saw off Benjamin Becker 7-6(8) 6-1, while Denis Istomin scraped past Horacio Zeballos 7-5 7-6(3).

Elsewhere, Ivan Dodig was 2-0 up in the first set when opponent Carlos Berlocq retired hurt.

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This article originally appeared on ESPN.com

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