3 Grand Slam finals, 3 World no. 1s faced and 3 Grand Slam wins is all about Stan Wawrinka who beat world no. 1 Novak Djokovic to claim his maiden US Open title. Since quarterfinals Stan fought in four sets to make a winning streak. It was hard to beat defending champion Novak Djokovic but Stan put all efforts in to take the title with 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3.
After Ken Rosewell (who won the title at the age of 35 yrs in 1970), the 31 year old Stan Wawrinka is the oldest US Open men’s champion. In the fourth set, Djokovic missed a forehand and from there, there was no famous fight back of Djokovic to take it to fifth set. Djokovic was granted medical timeout in fourth set beyond six minutes which was objected by Wawrinka. Later the world no. 1 apologized to Wawrinka and the play began only to end.
In their previous 23 meetings although Wawrinka won only four but two of those had been Grand Slam titles. In route to the final, while Wawrinka spent 18 hrs on the court, it was easy for Djokovic as he spent only 9 hrs. Like his countryman Roger Federer, Wawrinka stood by all storms to make it to big name & game.
The current world no. 3 had a great 2016 and winning the last grand slam of the year was an icing on the cake. His left forearm is tattooed with a quote from Irish writer Samuel Beckett- ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better’. Wawrinka is surely a late comer in tennis court but he is making big impacts by making it to the finals and defeating major champions. Wait till next year when you hear the roars from your favorite players on tennis court again.