Second seed Stan Wawrinka finished strongly to beat qualifier Franko Skugor 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday night in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Playing in his first tour-level match in nearly six years, Skugor gave Wawrinka a stern test in the first set before eventually losing serve in the 12^th game. After making the breakthrough, Wawrinka raced to the finish line, wrapping up victory in 83 minutes.

“I think it wasn’t amazing, but it’s a good win,” said Wawrinka, who was two points from defeat against Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round on Tuesday. “Happy to get through to playing in the quarters tomorrow, winning in two sets tonight. There’s a lot to improve, but in general I’m happy to win.”

The 30-year-old Wawrinka is chasing his second ATP World Tour title of the season, after victory in Chennai (d. Coric), and goes on to face Philipp Kohlschreiber, who defeated Borna Coric 6-2, 7-6(5) in one hour and 31 minutes.

Wawrinka leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0, but it will be their first meeting since 2008.

“It’s going to be an interesting match,” said Wawrinka. “He’s been there, Top 30, for many, many years. He’s always a tough player, always beating some good players during the year.

“You need to play solid and a good match to beat him. He’s not going to give you the match. Generally he’s playing his level every time. I will have to serve well, play my game and go for it.”

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic notched his 700th tour-level win in style on Wednesday night as he defeated Malek Jaziri 6-1, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

The Serb cruised to victory in 65 minutes, before he was presented on court with a commemorative cake to celebrate his achievement. He is only the 12th player in the Open Era (since 1968) to hit the 700 singles victories mark.

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The 28-year-old Djokovic is a four-time champion at this ATP World Tour 500 hard-court tournament and is looking to reclaim the title he won in 2009 (d. Ferrer), 2010 (d. Youzhny), 2011 (d. Federer) and 2013 (d. Berdych).

The Belgrade native goes on to face Feliciano Lopez, who was a 6-3, 7-6(7) winner over Lukas Rosol. Djokovic is unbeaten in his seven previous meetings with the left-handed Spaniard, who himself is a two-time finalist in Dubai. Lopez finished runner-up in 2004 (l. to Federer) and 2008 (l. to Roddick).

Rising teenager Taylor Fritz will make his Top 100 debut in the Emirates ATP Rankings after upsetting No. 8 seed Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the opening round of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel event in Acapulco on Tuesday. The victory marked the 18-year-old American qualifier’s second Top 30 win in two weeks, having defeated 29^th-ranked countryman Steve Johnson en route to his first ATP World Tour final in Memphis last week.

“Yeah, it feels amazing to have that consistency, to show I didn’t just do it that one time, to come back and do it again,” Fritz said. “I felt like the first set I played a really great game in the very first game to break. He has a really big first serve and I made a lot of solid returns that game and kind of caught him a little off guard. I was able to serve well enough to hold serve throughout the set.

“Second set, I definitely had my chances to break but didn’t come up on the big points. He did … And the third set, I played about the best game I possibly good to get the early break. I played a lot of good shots.”

Fritz withstood 12 aces from the Frenchman but was more effective on break points, landing four of his five opportunities. He will face Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominic Republic next, a player 17 years his senior.

Fritz will surpass fellow 18 year old, Alexander Zverev, as the youngest player in the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings by six months.

“It’s amazing. I’ve wanted to be a tennis player my whole life,” he said. “Being in the Top 100 puts things in perspective. I’m here and I only want to keep going up. This is a huge milestone for me.”

Fritz’s countryman, fellow qualifier Ryan Harrison, also pulled off an upset in his first-round clash, taking down No. 3 seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in one hour and 46 minutes. Harrison clinched four of his five break point opportunities to see off the World No. 12. Cilic led the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-0 and was coming off a runner-up appearance in Marseille where he fell to Nick Kyrgios. 

Russian Dimitry Tursunov had a narrow 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over Sam Groth in just under two hours. The 33 year old withstood 24 aces from the Australian, but managed to break four times.

He will next meet fourth seed Dominic Thiem, who posted a 7-6(3), 6-3 win over Bosnian Damir Dzumhur. The Austrian, making his tournament debut, broke on five of 16 opportunities in the one-hour, 37-minute clash.

Alexandr Dolgopolov edged past Steve Johnson 7-5, 7-6(4) in one hour and 24 minutes. The Ukrainian had lost his only prior FedEx Head2Head meeting with the American but landed 11 aces and saved all five break points he faced to reach the second round. Dolgopolov awaits the winner of top seed David Ferrer and Australian John Millman next.

Brit Aljaz Bedene advanced 6-4, 1-2 after Croat Ivo Karlovic retired at the 48-minute mark. Bedene will face Robin Haase in the second round.