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Stan stutters before Troicki triumph

Melbourne - Former winner Stan Wawrinka lost his serve twice serving for the match before he clinched a four-set victory over Viktor Troicki to reach the Australian Open fourth round on Friday.

The Swiss fourth seed dropped the opening set but he recovered and was cruising to victory before Troicki forced him into a fourth-set tiebreaker.

Wawrinka needed three match points before completing a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (9/7) victory over the 29th-seeded Serb in two hours, 32 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Wawrinka maintained his 100 percent record against Troicki, winning all eight of their matches with the loss of only three sets to the Serb.

The Swiss broke Troicki's service seven times and dropped his own serve five times.

Wawrinka, who beat Rafael Nadal in the 2014 Australian Open final, will face Andreas Seppi in the round of 16 after the experienced Italian got past Belgium's Steve Darcis in four sets.

It was the fifth straight year Wawrinka has reached the fourth round in Melbourne and comes after earlier wins over Slovak Martin Klizan and American Steve Johnson.

Last year as the fourth seed, Wawrinka fell to Milos Raonic over five sets in the round of 16.

Wawrinka is chasing his fourth Grand Slam title after his other wins at the 2015 French Open and last year's US Open.

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