Stan The (forgotten) Man

If there is one guy I hate writing about its Stan Wawrinka!! But probably not for the reasons you are thinking…

Actually, as a player and as a personality I really love Stan. In fact, it’s a shame the tennis world doesn’t talk about him as often as we probably should. He is, after all, a 3 time grand slam champion at 3 different slams and holds an impressive 75% success rate when he reaches a major final.   However, the thing is….he is an impossibly annoying subject to write about!! Why?

1)      He’s unpredictable: I like to make predictions, especially before grand slam events, which sometimes hit the mark and other times (more often than not) don’t. Trying to guess where Wawrinka is at, however, is a sure fire route to public humiliation…

2)      He’s unpredictable: Not only does Stan’s form go up and down like an elevator from tournament to tournament, but he can also find a world beating level from seemingly nowhere at a moment’s notice without any warning. Hence, making judging his chances pre event even less possible, and…

3)      He’s unpredictable: Did I mention already? But really, it’s not just his game that’s perplexing but emotionally Stan is an enigma. When he wins he points to his head to highlight his mental strength. It’s a resource he has in stacks as he isn’t one to crack under pressure. You could even say he rises to big occasions when the opportunity presents itself by producing a level well above his yearly average. A ‘Super Stan’ version of himself that hibernates during masters events but awakens when the big 4 really wish it wouldn’t. Yet, for long enough his mind was also his greatest weakness. Wawrinka was a late developer where slam success was concerned winning his first at the age of 28. He left his wife and daughter in 2015 to focus fully on tennis which doesn’t suggest the image of someone mentally strong and capable of multitasking the demands of the tour with the stresses of family life. He has also been very open about the empty feeling some of his greatest victories have brought him.

So surely anyone standing in the locker-room/ corridor with Stan before his 2016 US Open final, when he admitted to having a near panic attack experience and had to fight to stop crying, wouldn’t have really expected him to have a chance in that match? …yet….

So that’s my excuse for not writing about Wawrinka more but what about everyone else’s? Because I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say Stan is in danger of becoming the forgotten man.

Maybe it’s just that some commentators and journalists feel there isn’t the demand. Federer and Nadal have massive worldwide and long established fan bases and (as two of the greatest of all time) it is hard to resist the urge to bring them into any tennis conversation. Djokovic has been the dominant force for the last few years and has given everyone lots to talk about technique and personality wise. With his flatter groundstrokes, impressive speed, knack for turning defence into offence and pioneering popularisation of sliding on a hard court he is hard to ignore. Not to mention those old videos of the player impressions. Rounding off the big 4 is Andy Murray. In addition to being the treasure of Britain he has built impressive following in China?!? So does Stan just not have as many fans and so we overlook him because we think people don’t care about his achievements or struggles?

Well, it is true he doesn’t have quite the following of the other active multiple slam winners: you only need to look at social media following figures to see that. Even in his home country of Switzerland he is the second in command because of a guy called Federer. But he has built up in this respect more with every triumph. I think a lot of people who do support Stan have taken to him because of his ‘ordinary guy’ brand. He’s not an impossibly graceful tennis player/ballet dancer hybrid and slick media man who gets dressed in sequin snake design jackets by Gucci for functions. Nor is he a fantastic gymnastic health food enthusiast with a rawist restaurant who meditates at Buddhist temples and does ariel yoga. At least not that I know of…He’s actually quite relatable.

So is it that he just is not good enough in terms of skill?? Yes, he is perhaps unlucky to be in the era of the big 4: unless he can accelerate now he will forever be fifth man (whatever the rankings say) and he is fast running out of time. But it’s not like there’s nothing technical to talk about regarding Wawrinka. I mean that singlehanded backhand is just!!!! For me that one shot is so stunningly beautiful to watch that when it’s firing it eclipses the backhand of every member of the big 4 - yes even the peak Djokovic two hander! It is crazy to suggest Wawrinka doesn’t possess enough skill to mention. When Stan is on top form he can beat anyone. The problem is, he is not on his top form consistently enough.

Even excellence is easily forgotten when it is interspersed by vast periods of… averageness.

Still, Wawrinka’s average is better than yours. I guarantee it. It’s certainly better than mine. The bottom line is we need to credit this man for the way he has infiltrated the top of the game. He was always there but since 2013 he has really carved out a right to seriously join the conversation. In my opinion, it’s time we accept the big 5.

True, the big 4 have all held the number 1 singles ranking: something Stan hasn’t and quite possibly won’t ever do. If we take Andy Murray, the weakest of the big 4, then he is better than Stan in terms of consistency. No doubt. But…when Stan and Murray are both at their absolute peaks then, I would argue, Wawrinka’s best is slightly better than Andy’s. Even if you disagree with this opinion I’m sure you can acknowledge that the gulf between Djokovic and Murray is far greater than that between Murray and Wawrinka. So either there is a big 3 or there is a big 5, up to you!

Stan Wawrinka is 32 years old and so who knows for how much longer he will play. In fact, he has just announced he will not play for the remainder of the 2017 season while he recovers from knee surgery and will most likely have a fight on his hands when he does return to get back to his current ranking. But I for one am going to try remember to talk a lot more about him for whatever is left of his career, because for ‘Stan The Man’ to be forgotten would be the biggest injustice of all.