Overcoming the Odds

Stan Wawrinka gets past mental obstacles to capture final Grand Slam of 2016

November 11, 2016 | By Brian Coleman
Stan Wawrinka (2)

Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka captured the third Grand Slam of his career in Flushing Meadows, downing Novak Djokovic 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in the finals of the 2016 U.S. Open, but Stan the Man wasn’t as calm and collective heading into that match as one may have thought. Minutes before he walked onto the court in Arthur Ashe Stadium to play Djokovic for the title, Wawrinka was on the verge of a breakdown. He had a panic attack and could barely hold back his tears, something he hid well from everyone in the packed stadium.

“A lot of people are asking me how I was able to take the court, nonchalantly, when five minutes prior to that I had a stress attack and was holding back my tears … I tried, and wasn’t able to. I was already happy that no one noticed my reddened eyes. With 23,000 spectators and cameras everywhere, that was not a given. But I had to hide my condition,” Wawrinka revealed to Le Matin Dimanche, a Swiss newspaper. “I must have looked awful because, as I said in the press conference, I was close to the breaking point, the moment where you let it all out. I really felt I was at my limit.”

Throughout the first set, Wawrinka struggled with his focus and his stress, at one point yelling to his box that he had nothing left.

“It happened because I don’t want to lose the final in a Grand Slam, it’s that simple,” said Wawrinka. “That’s the only reason. This morning, it started to be there, the feeling of: ‘You don’t want to lose.’ So close … so far, so maybe it’s the reason why I was feeling so nervous.”

He enacted a unique strategy to try and move past his anxiety:

“So, how did I do it? I’ll tell you: I hurt myself. I tried to extend the rallies as much possible, one more shot, and another, to make the legs churn and not the head. I pushed the effort until I ran out of breath. Past that point, the mind isn’t too capable of thinking.”

Wawrinka physically beat himself up as to take his mind off the anxiety and onto the pain in his legs … and it worked.

Wawrinka dominated the final three sets, topped off by saving three break points and hitting 12 winners to four unforced errors in the final set. Overall, he saved 14 break points, while converting on six of his 10 break chances, becoming the oldest player, at the age of 31, to win the U.S. Open since Ken Rosewell captured the title in 1970.

“In matches like this, if you don’t use the opportunities, the other guy comes and takes it,” said Djokovic. “He stepped in and played aggressive, where I was waiting for things to happen.”

With the victory, Wawrinka bolstered his case for being lumped in with the Big Four. And with recent injuries limiting the success of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, there is no time like the present to include Stanislas Wawrinka in that conversation.

“This is amazing. I came to Flushing Meadows without the goal of winning it, but stepped on the court trying to win the match,” said Wawrinka. “I played a lot of tennis and was completely empty. There was so much emotion with the crowd, the atmosphere, the stadium … it’s been amazing.”

Across all sports, there are certain players who seem to rise to the occasion and play their best in the biggest moments. Stan Wawrinka has become that type of player. While he has 15 career titles on the ATP Tour, he often flies under the radar to the casual tennis fan when not at the Grand Slams. But when the majors begin, he kicks it up a notch.

“It’s nothing that we were dreaming about or talking about when we arrived to New York,” said Wawrinka’s coach, Magnus Norman. “When he’s on, when he’s playing a lot of matches, playing a lot of tennis, I think he’s really tough to beat.”

But Norman gave some insight into why Wawrinka has yet find consistency:

“He’s very vulnerable in the beginning of tournaments,” added Norman. “We still haven’t found the key of how he can be a little more consistent.”

And that is the catch with Wawrinka. He is capable of beating any player in the world at any given moment, but he isn’t always 100 percent focused early on in tournaments, and that has led to the inconsistency.

He burst onto the scene back in 2014, when he made his presence felt to the tennis and sports world by shocking Rafael Nadal and winning the Australian Open in Melbourne. For anyone who thought that may have been an aberration, Stan came back the next year and dazzled at the 2015 French Open, using his one-handed backhand to perfection to beat world number one Djokovic and halt the Serb’s quest for a career and calendar Grand Slam.

“He likes to occasionally whack the ball quite hard, and I don’t think that Novak likes that,” Norman said. “Stan is maybe one of the few guys who can really hit through Novak if he has a good day.”

Now with a third Grand Slam title to his name, there is no denying Wawrinka’s spot as one of the best in the game. He has the ability to hit shot for shot with anyone in the world, and his play from behind the baseline keeps him in every rally.

So it is no coincidence that he has the reputation of a big-match player, and his nickname of “Stan the Man” is indicative of that. Currently, he is ranked third in the ATP Men’s Singles Rankings, and has a ways to go still to catch Andy Murray and Djokovic, the only two players he is looking up at in the rankings.

The sport of tennis is getting older and older, as we are seeing more players at the professional level having success later in their careers, and Stan Wawrinka is no exception. Originally known as a late bloomer, the Swiss has only gotten better with age, and with some vulnerability at the top of the game, there may be a few more Grand Slam titles remaining for Wawrinka.

Right now, he is focusing on getting better each day.

“The thing that we’re working on is to make him a bit more consistent, because Stan is very much up and down,” Norman said. “Now he is ranked third in the world—but if you want to reach even higher levels, you need to produce good tennis on a weekly basis. Andy and Novak are much more consistent than Stan, so that’s the main thing we’re working on.”

Wawrinka will look to make a statement again in London at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in mid-November, and expect bigger things from the Stanimal in 2017.


Brian Coleman
Senior Editor, Long Island Tennis Magazine
Brian Coleman is the Senior Editor for Long Island Tennis Magazine. He may be reached at brianc@usptennis.com.
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