Wawrinka has reached 30 tour-level finals in his career, winning 16 titles, but has never reached the title match in Basel. Both men held to love three times in a speedy second set that saw just four points go against serve outside of Wawrinka's break. He would not face another break point in the match as both men dominated on serve, save four Ruud's late slip in the second set. The Swiss scored his first break to lead 4-3 in the opening set, then fought off three break points in the ensuing game to consolidate. Wawrinka, who won 93 per cent (26/28) of his first-serve points and hit 28 winners, served out the victory with ease to advance to the Basel second round for the seventh time. Ruud committed just four unforced errors in the match, but one handed Wawrinka the decisive break in the second set as the Norwegian surrendered serve at love with an untimely loose game. So to be able to produce that tonight here in Switzerland is of course something really special and hopefully I can keep playing well.' I was struggling really to get back in shape physically and tennis-wise. I had to fight the last two years with the injury, surgery. 'This is one of the main reasons why I keep on playing,' added Wawrinka, who entered the event with a protected ranking. It took me a little bit of time to adapt to the court but the level was great and I'm really happy with that. 'It's always been amazing for me to play here it's always been difficult because I am always nervous when I enter this court. A lot of emotion being back here in Basel with the Swiss fans,' he said post-match. Wawrinka converted on each of his two break points - one late in each set - and saved all three against him to close out the victory in one hour and 18 minutes. The 37-year-old from Lausanne used a crisp and efficient performance to upset second seed Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 in the pair's first ATP Head2Head meeting. Competing at the Swiss Indoors Basel for the 15th time, Stan Wawrinka thrilled his home fans by recording his biggest win since defeating Novak Djokovic at the 2019 US Open.

Tennis swiss indoors