Wawrinka surges behind great form in St. Petersburg

Three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka reached his second semifinal of the season by beating defending champion Damir Dzumhur at the St. Petersburg Open.

It's no secret that the 33-year-old hasn’t been in the best of form since knee surgery last year. But if his performance in the past couple of months is anything to go by, it looks like Wawrinka will soon be competing for Slams again.

In St. Petersburg, he has won all three of matches in straight sets, the most notable of them coming against local favorite Karen Khachanov.

The highlight of the match was a backhand down-the-line winner from the Swiss' racquet.

He pulled off a similar hot shot earlier the tournament against Aljaz Bedene

Wawrinka seems to have found his rhythm since playing the North American hard-court swing. After an early exit in Washington, it took very strong opponents in Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to knock him out of Toronto and Cincinnati. He has scored wins over top players like Nick Kyrgios, Diego Schwartzman and Kei Nishikori.

Although he hasn’t had a deep run at a Grand Slam in 2018, first-round wins over Grigor Dimitrov at both Wimbledon and  theUS Open suggest that he is on the right track.