Summary Ivo Karlovic beat Stan Wawrinka 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 in the first-round of the Swiss Indoors.
BASEL (AFP) - French Open champion Stan Wawrinka suffered his eighth first-round defeat at the Swiss Indoors on Wednesday when he slumped to a 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 loss to Ivo Karlovic.
Karlovic, the 36-year-old Croatian, sent down 21 aces to take victory over the Swiss second seed after trailing a set and a break.
"I had a poor first set and was missing a lot with my volleys," said Karlovic.
"But I began improving in the second set and got a bit lucky when I converted my break points (in the sixth game at 3-3). After that, things started going my way."
Karlovic, who had lost five of six previous meetings with Wawrinka, next plays Serbia s Dusan Lajovic.
Wawrinka was disappointed to have let the match slip away.
"It s never easy to lose a match like that, especially since I felt I was playing well and feeling good. I had my chances to take control of the match," said the Swiss.
"After the first set, everything was good, I was playing well. I played really good for two sets, more or less. I had a few mistakes, but it can happen.
"He s playing his best year so far, he s improved his game a lot. He serves amazing and you don t get many chances. Today I got my chances and I didn t take them."
Later Wednesday, Spanish third seed Rafael Nadal was facing Bulgaria s Grigor Dimitrov.
Elsewhere in the opening round, fourth seed Kevin Anderson advanced over Croatian teenager Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 while seventh seed and last weekend s Moscow champion Marin Cilic beat Basel native Marco Chiudinelli 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
South Africa s Anderson sent down 29 winners, improving his record in the best season of his career to 45-22.
Jack Sock won an American battle with Denis Kudla 6-4, 6-2 and next faces countryman John Isner, the sixth seed.
Russia s Teimuraz Gabashvili stopped Argentina Leonardo Mayer 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
In the second round, 2014 finalist David Goffin booked a quarter-final spot with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Adrian Mannarino.
