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Troicki: Beating Simon means a lot to me

For the first time in his career, Viktor defeated Gilles, and now he plans to do the same against the title defender. Wawrinka is leaving a better impression one match after the other

PBZ Zagreb Indoors

The title defender, after struggling against Rosol in the overture, seems more sure now. The Swiss's last victim was the home tennis player Jeremy Chardy.

Not even the audience were able to help the French; Wawrinka was just in the right rhythm. Stan lost the intro serve game, but everything after that was dominated by him. He was a lot better than in the previous matches, his footwork was great, and generally speaking, this was his best performance of the week. An extra break in each of the sets was more than enough for a maximum win against the very uncomfortable Chardy.

- A great match. I'm very pleased with today's game. My footwork was great, I was very aggressive, and what's the most important, I managed to hit continually. I'm really more than pleased - said Wawrinka,

The title defender continues to surely tread on Roland Garros, and he even spoke about Rafael Nadal's complete retiring with an injury (wrist).

- We've all seen he's been feeling certain pain, but you simply couldn't guess it was that serious. It's a loss for the tournament, the fans and tennis.

Wawrinka wished a quick recovery for Rafa, but one of the main title candidates dropping out surely narrowed the circle a bit.

Just like the Swiss, Viktor Troicki's toughest job was in the intro part. Dimitrov had 2-1 in sets and an extra break, but the Serbian managed to turn the game around and then he beat first Lajovic, and then Gilles Simon in order to make it to the fourth round.

In the seventh head-to-head Viktor managed to win a set against Simon. Not only that, all three belonged to him for a more than convincing win. He probably couldn't have picked a better moment to plant sweet revenge against the French. Still, it seemed almost certain that Simon paid the price due to an incredibly exhausting match of the second round and the five sets against Guida Pello. Still, Troicki's excellent performance shouldn't be overshadowed; this was surely one of his best matches in his career.

- This win means a lot to me. First of all in the psychological sense. I'm in good shape, my confidence is growing, and I'm ready to fight until the end. I've never beaten Wawrinka, but I've never beaten Simon either, and now I did it - said Troicki.

Actually, the only time he beat the Swiss was at a Adelaide exhibition in 2013, but all the competitive duels against Stan he lost. This time the Swiss is again quite the favorite, but since Troicki was known to resist throughout earlier head-to-heads too, we can at least count on that.