RESPECT AND REDEMPTION—WAWRINKA PREVAILS
By Bill Simons
This was to be the Serb’s moment.
The man who was raised as bombs fell was supposed to lift the French Open’s Coupe de Mousquetaires.
But a Swiss player not named Federer wasn’t so sure.
Novak Djokovic, the child of war who had became the man of the day. He was now the game’s dominant player. Years ago when he was shattering tennis’s ruling duopoly of Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, his foe, Stan Wawrinka, was but a journeyman. The Swiss with the big backhand wasn’t even the top player in his small alpine nation. He labored long and often futilely in Roger’s shadow.
Yes, he drew kudos when he won the 2008 Olympic doubles gold medal—with none other than Roger. But in a world of Federer’s grace, Nadal’s muscles and Djokovic’s precise athleticism, Wawrinka rarely drew attention. The man didn’t even have a snazzy Nike outfit. Clearly he was charisma-impaired. Wawrinka watchers could only claim was that while Serb Janko Tipsarevic may have had the most poetic tattoo in the game—”Beauty will save the world”—Stan’s tattoo offered the best call to action: writer Samuel Beckett’s cry, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail better.” Certainly, the Swiss would “fail better” today in the first Rafa-less French Open final in six years. Wise men predicted Novak would tattoo him.
After all, Djokovic had beaten Stan in 17 of their 20 meetings. Recently married and a new father, he was relishing the hottest streak in tennis since his own sublime run in 2011. He’d won 28 straight matches and every big tournament he’d played since November. Now it was the man’s destiny to fulfill the plea of his late coach Jelena Gencic and prevail in Paris. The win would give him his ninth Grand Slam and, along with seven other legends, he would claim a career Grand Slam.
The pundits didn’t exactly celebrate the fact that Wawrinka, the No. 8 seed, had been rollicking at Roland Garros. He had finished Federer in straight sets and then subdued home-standing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach the finals. The other time he reached a Slam final, at the 2014 Aussie Open, he was seeded No. 8 and he beat the No. 1 seed, Nadal. Wawrinka may be a barrel-chested powerhouse, but few were singing “Roll out the barrel.”
No respect. The Rodney Dangerfield of tennis had a long history of being dissed. When he played poorly in a Davis Cup tie against the US, his partner, Mr. Federer, threw him under the bus. And Roger’s wife touched off a mini-controversy when reportedly she heckled him from the players’ box in London last fall.
Just weeks ago, Stan’s wife issued a scathing, accusatory press release when the two separated. On opening day of the French Open, the tournament’s own website claimed Stan was distracted by his personal problems. In the press conference after his seminal semifinal win, the first question from a reporter spoke of his longtime nemesis. “You have a chance to equalize Roger Federer in [terms of] Roland Garros number of slams,” the callous reporter said. Wawrinka was a bit at a loss.
Similarly, he was at a loss in the seventh game of the match, when his level dipped and a double fault gave the fresh and aggressive Novak a break that enabled Djokovic to eventually collect the first set, 6-4.
Deep into the second set, Djokovic showed his championship mettle. Five times he saved break points—clutch.
History certainly seemed to be smiling on the Serb. “For so many reasons, Djokovic wants to win this one,” noted Mary Carillo.
But there were so many reasons he didn’t.
Yes, Wawrinka faltered on many a break point early in the match. But the man has good speed, a serve that damages, an underrated return of serve, and of late has improved mightily under the guidance of his coach Magnus Norman, whose Swedish tennis school is the Good to Great Academy. In the tenth game of the second set, Stan went from good to great. After yet another epic rally, all the pressure Stan had been applying finally paid off.
On Wawrinka’s sixth break point, Novak’s level dipped, and his backhand flew long to give the Stan the game and the second set, 6-4.
Yes, the match was even—a set apiece. But the momentum was not. The game’s dominant player—the guy with the crew cut—was being cut down. The man who, over the past four years, has twice faltered in the French Open semis and twice in the finals, so dearly wanted to win. You could taste his desire. Early in the third set, he rallied and saved three break points.
But what analysts knew full well—that Stan’s sizzling backhand and mighty forehand were the best one-two punch in tennis—was now on glorious display. His firepower seemed to gather. A Swiss avalanche roared. Stan stepped in. His wonder shot—his best-in-the game one-handed backhand—relentlessly punished. Pick your poison: down the line, or cross-court. Stan began to prevail in long, breathless rallies. He stroked an ‘OMG’ backhand around the net post, and he hit almost twice as many winners as Novak.
As Wawrinka lifted his game into the zone, Djokovic’s head dropped. Frustrated and out of sorts, he offered a wry smile and gazed at his Friends Box. Slightly passive, clearly he felt the weight and pressure of the moment. The man had a lot to lose. His past French troubles had to ping-pong in his head. He usually manages matches by controlling the middle of the court. Today the middle was not holding. Too often he was on the run.
Djokovic did save three break points early in the third set. But midway through, Wawrinka stormed back with a flurry of astounding winners, broke Novak, and eventually claimed the set, 6-3.
With the Swiss up two sets to one, Mary Carillo joked, “The real danger is that Wawrinka thinks that’s his lucky outfit.” More to the point, critics wondered whether Stan could now call on what so often had eluded him—belief. Could he climb the mountain that loomed? After all, there’s a reason Djokovic is No. 1. Just last summer at Wimbledon, he had come from behind to beat Federer, and now he broke early in the fourth set. Certainly we would be going to a fifth set. A classic was in store. With his nimble body and resilient fighting spirit, Novak gained many a break point. But on this day, the Swiss was Stan the alpha man. Just as in women’s tennis, where Serena’s serve can bail her out while dominating and deflating her foes, Stan’s backhand was sublime, a knockout punch.
Novak had no answer.
In a world of mechanical two-handed backhands, Wawrinka’s potent one-hander ruled. It was a big reason why he saved 24 of 27 break points in the semis and finals. It was key when he broke to go up 5-4 in the fourth set. and, in the next game, when he stroked yet another down-the-line backhand winner, he claimed his second Slam title 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
While Stan called his glittering performance the match of his life, Djokovic’s dreams, at least for the moment, lay in tatters. He was just 8-8 in Slam finals. But the suddenly appreciative French crowd didn’t care. Perhaps not since the vulnerable Martina Navratilova lost in the 1981 US Open final, or Roger Federer at the 2009 Aussie Open, had a Slam runner-up been showered with such affection. Their ovation for the Serb seemed unending. Novak—wise, emotional and knowing—teared up and told the crowd that “there are so many things more important in life” than winning a tennis match.
Like respect.
Surely Wawrinka, the Rodney Dangerfield of tennis, who had been so overlooked and underappreciated for so long, would now be placed on a lofty pedestal. Today, noted Matthew Cronin, his performance “was the very picture of power and purpose.” He had won two of the last six Slams, and among active singles players, only he, Federer and Nadal could claim multiple Grand Slam titles, an Olympic gold medal and a Davis Cup championship.
So surely now there is little value in focusing on Wawrinka’s dorky outfits, his modest pizzazz, or his off-court challenges. Rather, every tennis player, every athlete and, for that matter, everyone might do well to reflect on the best tattoo in tennis: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail better.”
