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By Chris Oddo/ Sunday, January 26, 2014
Stan Wawrinka won his maiden Grand Slam title on Sunday in
Melbourne, finishing off a surreal victory, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6,
6-3.
Photo Source: Getty
Stan Wawrinka made history in Sunday’s
Australian Open final, knocking off a hobbled Rafael
Nadal in four surreal sets, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, to
become the first man in history to defeat both Novak
Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in the same
Grand Slam tournament.
Video: Nadal Hurts Back During
Australian Open Final, Gets Booed
“Last year I had a crazy match,” said Wawrinka, referring to
the heartbreaking loss to Novak Djokovic that has helped spur
him to new heights. “I lost it—I was crying a lot after the
match. But in one year a lot happened, and right now I still
don’t know if I’m dreaming or not, but we’ll see tomorrow
morning.”
Playing in his first Grand Slam final, Wawrinka didn’t suffer
from any jitters in the early going as he raced out to a set
and a break lead over Nadal by playing the same kind of
awe-inspiring tennis that had got him to the final. He didn’t
make a lot of first serves in the early going but he made up
for it by cracking his groundstrokes from both wings and
knocking off clean, crisp volleys at the net to keep Nadal
subservient in the exchanges through the first eleven games.
Then, with Wawrinka up a set and 2-0, things got strange.
Nadal would tweak his back while serving in the third game of
the second set, and at the conclusion of the game he left the
court for treatment.
“At the beginning of the second was the key moment that I felt,
during a serve in a bad movement, is very stiff, very bad,”
Nadal told the press after the final. But he was quick to
deflect attention from his back on to Wawrinka. “That’s not the
real moment to talk about [the back],” he said. “Is the moment
to congratulate Stan. He’s playing unbelievable.”
Nadal would return to a chorus of boos by fans
who assumed that the 13-time Grand Slam champion was taking the
timeout to cool down the zoning Wawrinka. Nadal’s medical
timeout also was met with anger from Wawrinka, who was playing
so well that he simply couldn’t bear to stop. He argued with
umpire Carlos Ramos for several minutes about
the nature of Nadal’s injury to no avail.
But when play resumed it was clear that Nadal’s injury was far
more than a gamesmanship ploy. Hardly moving, and close to
tears at times, he struggled to move and quickly dropped the
second set.
In the third set, Wawrinka let the chaos get to him, and
dropped to Nadal’s level. He stopped moving his feet and fell
behind quickly by a break. He poured in 19 unforced errors
during the set, and blew two break points in the ninth game,
not putting a return in play despite the fact that Nadal was
serving at about 80 percent of his normal power.
“[It] was the second match in the match,” Wawrinka said of the
difficulties of facing a wounded Nadal. “I had to stay calm
with myself just to try to stay aggressive because he was
injured, but he was still trying a little bit. Was not easy. I
started to be really nervous because I started to realize that
I could win a Grand Slam.”
Nadal, frequently serving in the 70-80 mph range, would manage
only one ace on the evening, against 19 for Wawrinka, and the
Spaniard hit only 19 winners against 53 for Wawrinka.
But somehow Nadal seemed to loosen up as the time passed, and
he managed to keep his comeback hopes alive.
In the fourth set, Nadal’s movement began to improve and so did
his intensity, while Wawrinka’s play remained spotty. For a
spell, it looked like Wawrinka was seriously in trouble of
letting the match go to a decisive fifth set.
But the Swiss would finally find his range on the forehand side
late in the set. He crushed two down-the-line forehand winners
to break Nadal in consecutive games, earning a chance to serve
for the title.
He would make good on the opportunity, and raise his arms in a
subdued celebration, before a heartfelt exchange with Nadal at
the net.
In the end, it was a two-hour and twenty-minute match that felt
like it lasted a lifetime. Nadal, who fell short in his quest
to tie Pete Sampras with 14 career Grand
Slams, looked as if he had seen a ghost at times, while
Wawrinka, despite the odd nature of the match, couldn’t conceal
his joy.
Wawrinka had never won a set in 12 previous matches from Nadal.
Now he’s won three–and he’s a Grand Slam champion.
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