Stan Wawrinka worked painfully hard in taking down Andy Murray at the French Open, which doesn’t seem fair at all, considering the Swiss will now have to take on Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s championship match.
It was as ugly as it was thrilling. But in the end, as Stan Wawrinka stood on Court Philippe Chatrier in exultation, pointing to his head, it was about big-match acuity.
Wawrinka took out Andy Murray in a 4-hour, 34-minute marathon Friday to reach the French Open final. Wawrinka, one of the most fearless hitters in the game, donated an obscene amount of unforced errors, 77 in all, and still beat the world No. 1.
After all the build, the fifth set was anticlimactic by comparison, with Wawrinka breaking his opponent four times. If that doesn’t speak to acing a pressure situation, then we’re not sure what does.
Wawrinka’s gift (or is it a cruel joke?) : Rafael Nadal in the final. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
For now, let’s take a deeper dive into Wawrinka’s latest and greatest win, thanks to our unstoppable Stats & Info gang:
Won his fourth career match over a No. 1 in Grand Slam play; only Nadal (8) and Boris Becker (5) have more
Improves to 26-20 in tour-level career in five-setters; the only active player who has played more five-setters is his countryman Roger Federer
Improves to 9-2 in five-setters at the French Open, his best five-set record at any of the four major tournaments
Despite all the errors Friday, Wawrinka smacked 87 winners as well, equaling the total of his three previous matches combined
Not bad for an old guy, eh? Check out this piece of info:
And if that doesn’t impress you, perhaps this will?
Wawrinka has won all three major finals he’s played.
