ATP Number 21: Stanislas Wawrinka in 2010
Stanislas “The Manislas” Wawrinka is currently World Number 22 on the Association of Tennis Professionals, with a career high ranking of World Number 9 (achieved in 2008). The player, who hails from Switzerland, considers clay to be his most preferred surface,
and his backhand to be his strongest shot. This opinion is backed up by one of the best tennis players ever, John McEnroe, who believes Wawrinka has one of the most powerful backhands ever seen. McEnroe adds that Stanislas Wawrinka has “the best one-handed
backhand in the game today”.
Wawrinka partnered with compatriot Roger Federer at the men’s doubles event at the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Belgium. Wawrinka and Federer managed to defeat their Swedish opponents Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson in the final of the event, taking
away the gold medal for Switzerland. The Federer/Wawrinka duo was also honoured with the title of 2008 Swiss Team of the Year.
In 2010, Wawrinka’s best performance was at the US Open at Flushing Meadows. British Number 1 Andy Murray has a string of Slam defeats and losses to offensive players with hard shots, and this year it was Stanislas Wawrinka who served up his latest failure.
The Swiss pro dominated the US Open courts, emerged from his shell and set the court ablaze by firing a four-set win over the Scottish player. Wawrinka went on to reach the quarterfinals of the event in Queens, New York.
This year, Stanislas Wawrinka has made few mistakes and there is not much fault to find with him while he was on tour. However, he faltered disastrously at the Davis Cup World Group Play-offs, losing both his singles rubber and his doubles match with Yves
Allegro. His singles loss in particular baffled many spectators, especially since he lost to Mikhail Kukushkin – a player whom he had defeated weeks ago at the US Open. The 5-0 score whitewashed the team out of the World Group for 2011, sending Switzerland
packing.
While Stanislas Wawrinka is doomed to live under the shadow of his more acclaimed countryman, Roger Federer, he has still managed to build a good fanbase for himself over the last few years. He’s a threatening player on both slow and fast surfaces. Furthermore,
he also recently hired Federer’s former coach Peter Lundgren. Lundgren himself testified to his charge’s commitment, saying, “When I asked what he wanted help with, he said he wants to return to the Top 10. It’s what you want to hear as a coach. I’m going
to try to get Stan to become more aggressive.” The results of the change in tutelage were obvious at the US Open; a full season with Lundgren has helped players like Marcelo Rios, Marat Safin and Roger Federer in the past, and should do the same for Wawrinka.
His most impressive match this year was no doubt the US Open fight against Murray. While his backhand has always been praiseworthy, his entire form during the match was magnificent.
Stanislas Wawrinka is very likely to improve his ranking in the next season. His Top Ten tenure in 2008 was brief, and while reproducing the tennis that got him there may be a difficult task, he has proven this year that he is a player capable of rising
to challenges.
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