By John Huston
He can throw a heavyweight punch, but Stanislas Wawrinka is less likely to win a long-distance race against Novak Djokovic. And midway into their blockbuster semifinal, the long, grinding rallies began to creep in. A 22-shot one, late in the second set. A 27-shot exchange in the second-set tiebreak. A 29-shot showdown midway through the third.
Then the scattered marathon points gave way to The Game That Ate the Match: At 1-1 in the fifth set, a 30-point, 21-minute struggle in which Wawrinka valiantly fought off five break points. This single game contained it all—a fabulous dipping, angled passing shot from Djokovic; a massive down-the-line backhand winner from Wawrinka; and an endless seesaw routine that returned over and over to deuce. At 29 points, Wawrinka and eventually Djokovic gestured to the crowd, encouraging a standing ovation. After the mayhem died down, Wawrinka blasted a service winner to hold.
One might think the moment was pivotal, but think again. The instant Djokovic or Wawrinka won a grueling rally, the other would take the next point with ease. So while Wawrinka won the game of the match—most likely the game of the tournament and even the year—Djokovic immediately seized control, holding serve at love and finally breaking Wawrinka, then serving aggressively again to decisively grab the lead. It was 4-2 Djokovic in the fifth, and for the first time in the match, Djokovic was winning the race to match point. Even his path was shorter: at that stage, he’d run 2.8 miles on court, while the heftier Wawrinka had logged three.
During and after, there was no doubt that Wawrinka won over the crowd, a fact Djokovic acknowledged immediately following his 2-6, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory, with the bald-faced admission, “He [Wawrinka] played better tennis.” But even if crowds can influence matches, they don’t decide them, and part of this sport’s unique riddle-like intrigue is that a canny champion plainly not playing his best can outwit and outperform a dynamic contender. Wawrinka blasted cannon-like down-the-line forehand and backhand winners, yet it was Djokovic who came out on top of most of the cat-and-mouse angle- and net exchanges, and he won the biggest cat-and-mouse routine of all, the one of storing and then stoking one’s endurance over five sets in today’s punishing power baseline era.
In the early stages of the match, Wawrinka’s massive game almost had Djokovic down for the count. In fact, on two different occasions his triumphant, adrenaline-rush shotmaking sent the usually bendable Novak sprawling onto the court. Fresh from a straight-set win over defending champion Andy Murray, the newly scruffy Swiss ,who has long lingered in the shadow of the great Roger Federer, strutted from one winning point to another with a visible confidence, tugging his shirt up over his shoulders. The tennis player built most like a footballer, Stan the Man entered his first Grand Slam semifinal with an undeniable swagger, and he wanted to hold onto it.
Yet a dark deep-night memory lingered in the Saturday sun, of his previous match against Djokovic, one of this year’s other highlights. In a sense, Wawrinka announced himself as a potential top five player in Melbourne, when he lost 12-10 in the fifth set of a wild fourth-round encounter that set the stage for Djokovic to collect his fourth Australian Open title. A New York tiebreak wouldn’t allow history to repeat itself exactly, but might Wawrinka’s more inspired play gradually give way to Djokovic’s thoughtful, measured consistency?
For a long while it wasn’t clear, and the seething temper that defined Novak’s early appearances in New York showed signs of resurfacing. At five games into the second set, when Marian Vajda was called for a coaching violation, it seemed possible that Djokovic’s surly mood would switch into another gear, resulting either in a more aggressive game plan or some dramatic self-sabotage. (At one point in the fourth set, he yelled “Shut up, don’t say anything to me!” at Vajda in Serbian.)
But Novak is a veteran, and he doesn’t have seven Grand Slam titles to his name by accident. Before the end of the match, it was Wawrinka who’d had a meltdown, losing a point for smashing his racket while 0-2 down in the fourth set. And though Novak went down first, he was also the one who dealt the match’s crippling blow, wrongfooting a still-mentally unbalanced Wawrinka less than two games later. Stan the Man got back up again. But hobbled by an upper leg strain, he never fully regained his footing. In fact, on two different occasions before the match was over, after especially punishing points, he took a seat on the side of the court. The roles had changed. He’d been transformed from upset artist nto spectator.
From his shotmaking to his language, Stanislas Wawrinka was the more colorful player on the day, and in the coming months and years, it’s going to be exciting to see if he’ll build on what is in some ways his breakthrough year—especially because Wawrinka’s booming forehand and windmill one-handed backhand flourish on clay just as well as hard courts, and because the latest chapters of his Swiss countryman Roger Federer’s history-making story no longer blot out his own efforts.
However, it’s Novak Djokovic who survived another punishing match to vie for the US Open title. He did so even though his serve was absent the first set and his intimidating return game was misfiring. The key wasn’t in dynamic fireworks but in a more resolute and defensive brand of high-percentage tennis than what he displayed in his dominant year of 2011. On this day, at least, it worked. Make not mistake about it, a terrific player on a hot streak, especially one as mighty as Wawrinka, is always a pleasure to watch. Still, the inner workings of a champion under pressure make for the better result, if not the bigger story. You can rest assured that Djokovic will be resting as much as possible before he faces off with that other champ, Rafael Nadal, on Monday.
THE F-BOMB(S) HEARD ROUND THE TENNIS WORLD: The question echoed around the media room seconds into match-drunk Stanislas Wawrinka’s live on-court interview with Mary Joe Fernandez. “Did he just say f—ing?” An hour later, CBS only had themselves to blame when they aired some footage of Wawrinka cramping up during his French-language presser that kicked off with another F-bomb. Shortly after, anchor Bill Macatee apologized to viewers for the lively language.
NO TIME (OR ENERGY) TO WASTE: Nadal’s grinding used to cause him trouble in the late stages of hard court majors, but armed with a more aggressive hardcourt style, he went into his semi against Richard Gasquet with four less hours of match time than his opponent.
SERVE TO LOSE: Richard Gasquet began and ended the second-set tiebreak of his semifinal against Rafael Nadal by hitting double faults. He also double faulted to hand the 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-2 victory to Nadal, in a performance that countered the title of Novak Djokovic‘s new book Serve to Win.
RUNS IN THE FAMILY: Early in the Open, Rafa‘s nine-year-old nephew fidgeted around with the scorekeeping system on an umpire’s chair, erasing a winning result of Roger Federer in the process. “As if Rafa himself hasn’t done that enough,” Mary Carillo quipped.
NEVER THROWING IN THE TOWEL: As cameras cut to the ever-quirky (and sweaty) Rafa throwing a blanket-size white towel to a ballboy between points, Mary Carillo remarked, “Don’t you just love these huge towels that Rafa uses on the court? He doesn’t use the ones that they give out in the locker room. He needs more—and fluffier.”
JUST WONDERING: Peak Swiss players Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka lost crucial points in their defeats by storming the net—in today’s power baseline era, how often does serve-and-volley hint at desperation or throwing in the towel? … Will Rafael Nadal be sending some lobs Novak Djokovic’s way during their Monday showdown, after Djokovic hit a put-away right back to Stanislas Wawrinka in the fifth set, losing a point? (Flubbed overheads by Djokovic were pivotal to Nadal’s wins over Djokovic at the French Open this year and the Beijing Olympics in 2008.)
