Wawrinka Powers Into Wimbledon Second Round

Stan Wawrinka powered his way into the second round at The Championships on Monday, completing the first singles match of the day, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 over Belgian qualifier Rubens Bemelmans in 87 minutes.

Wawrinka, the No. 22 seed, who is working with Daniel Vallverdu and his regular coach Magnus Norman for the grass-court swing, didn’t face a break point in an impressive win that included 26 winners.

"I think I had a great preparation," said Wawrinka. "I'm happy the way I've been practising so far here. [I'm] really happy the way I've been feeling physically. Today was a great match, a great start. Three sets, so it's good to start like that."

The 2014 and 2015 Wimbledon quarter-finalist, who is now 20-14 at the All England Club, will next challenge American Reilly Opelka. The Swiss comes into the Grand Slam championship on the back of a Roland Garros quarter-final run (l. to Federer).

Opelka struck 11 aces in a 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 victory over Stebe in one hour and 48 minutes.

Tenth seed Karen Khachanov negotiated a way past World No. 126 Soonwoo Kwon, a South Korean qualifier, 7-6(6), 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, with the majority of points under five strokes. Khachanov, who is competing at Wimbledon at a career-high No. 9 in the ATP Rankings, reached his first Grand Slam championship quarter-final last month at Roland Garros (l. to Thiem) to turn around a slow start to the year.

He will now face Feliciano Lopez, a three-time former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, who didn’t face a break point in beating American Marcos Giron 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 over one hour and 34 minutes. The veteran Spaniard, which picked up his second Fever-Tree Championships crown two weeks ago, won 42 of his 44 first-service points.