Wawrinka toys with Coric

Chennai - Top seed Stanislas Wawrinka opened his campaign in the new season with a 6-1, 6-4 demolition of teenager Borna Coric of Croatia to cruise into the ATP Chennai Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The Swiss world number four gave the 18-year-old Coric a tennis lesson as he began the defence of his title in the $450 000 event.

Wawrinka, who was among the top four seeds given a bye into the second round, showed no signs of rustiness against the 95th-ranked Croatian, the youngest player in the top 100.

"I'm really happy to start this way," said Wawrinka, who will defend his Australian Open title later in the month.

"I played a solid, aggressive match. I made him run around and my backhand worked well. This is a good sign and very satisfying.

Wawrinka will next play eighth seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg for a place in the semi-finals.

Fourth seed David Goffin of Belgium overcame a mid-match loss of form to struggle past Richardas Berankis of Lithuania in three sets 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (7/1).

Goffin's quarter-final opponent will be Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer, who came from behind to oust Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-4.

AFP reported results from the Qatar Open:

Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 6-2, 6-1

Ivo Karlovic (CRO x7) bt Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) 7-6 (7/3), 6-3

David Ferrer (ESP x4) bt Fernando Verdasco (ESP) 6-3, 6-2

Dustin Brown (GER) bt Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 7-6 (11/9), 6-4

Tomas Berdych (CZE x3) bt Blaz Kavcic (SLO) 6-1, 6-2

Andreas Seppi (ITA) bt Joao Souza (BRA) 7-5, 6-2

Ivan Dodig (CRO) bt Michael Berrer (GER) 7-6 (7/1), 6-2.