Stan Wawrinka surprises again to win his 3rd slam. Even if Stan was the world no.3, once again nobody was paying much attention to him. At the beginning of the slam, the big debates were about Djokovic’s conditions, if Murray would have been the anti-Djokovic, if it was time to Raonic or Kyrgios to step in, and if Nadal would have surprised again with another slam. Eventually, Stan found his way through to open up a new debate: does he belong to the Big 4 league?
The final
The last act of the tournament was extremely interesting. The odds were for Wawrinka just because Djokovic was injured and definitely not at his 100%. The world no.1 had an extremely sharp start to grab a fast 4-1 lead; Stan found his way to breaking back, but he eventually collapsed in the tiebreak (lost at 1). The Swiss got back big time in the following sets to achieve an early break in the 3rd, 4th and 5th set. Djokovic has managed to break back in the 3rd and 4th, but the Swiss has always found the solution at the end of each set.
The big drama unfolded in the fifth set when Djokovic was completely unable to move because of a problem to his toenails. Stan grabbed a 3-0 before winning the match 6-7 (1) 6-4 7-5 6-3.
Wawrinka has now three slams under his belt. Not many would have predicted that 4 years ago.
I didn’t have the goal of winning. WAWRINKA
After the match, an emotional Wawrinka confessed
“This is amazing. I came here without the goal of winning it but stepped on the court trying to win the match.
I played a lot of tennis; I am completely empty. There was so much emotion with the crowd, the atmosphere, the stadium; it’s been an amazing night.”
Congrats to Stan. DJOKOVIC
Nole was textbook perfect in defeat (as always) to acknowledge Stan
“Congratulations, Stan, to your team as well. This has been absolutely deserved today. You were the more courageous player in the decisive moment, and he deserves his title.
At this level, after playing seven, eight months of the season, obviously you’re not very fresh but coming into the Grand Slam final you are giving it your best,
We both felt it. We both felt the demanding match that we played today, but he came out on top; he was the better player, tougher mentally.
It was a fantastic couple of weeks for me. I didn’t know if I was going to come a few weeks before because I struggled physically. If someone had told me I was going to play in the final, I would definitely have accepted it.”
Well done to both!
Does Wawrinka deserve 3 slams? |
THE DRAW |
ANOTHER EPIC SLAM FOR STAN! |
Very nice epilogue. I am also surprised that Wawrinka has won 3 slams. I think he was extremely lucky in the first (Aus Open) because Nadal was badly injured to his back. I also think he was lucky to win this US Open because there was no Federer, Murray lost a freak match vs. Nishikori that was dead tired when he played Stan in the semi. Finally Djokovic was clearly to himself in the final.