Ebden advances, Wawrinka out in ATP Sofia

Matt Ebden has battled to a three-set victory over Adrian Andreev in the first round of the ATP’s Sofia Open in Bulgaria.

Ebden held his nerve in a tiebreaker to seal a 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-5) win in 2hrs and 20mins.

The world No.45 Australian’s next opponent will be Spanish fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who made the quarter-finals of last month’s Australian Open.

Three-times grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka fell at the first hurdle when beaten 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 by Romanian Marius Copil.

The Swiss Wawrinka, who has fallen to 57th in the rankings, strolled to the first set in just 23 minutes after breaking Copil in the sixth game.

But the Romanian became more and more comfortable as the match went on and bagged the second in a tiebreaker.

Copil, who reached the tournament’s final last year, put up stubborn resistance from the baseline in the third set, wrapping up his first career victory over the 33-year-old Wawrinka, whose trademark backhand failed to fire.

“It’s great to start with a win against Wawrinka,” world No. 56 Copil said.

Next up for Copil is the winner of the first-round clash between sixth-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain and Bulgarian qualifier Alexandar Lazarov.

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