Tennis: Stan Wawrinka’s year in 5 key dates

We arrive nicely at the end. If a few athletes are still in the running, in Sofia for men and Linz for women, this tennis year, deeply disturbed – like everything else – by the coronavirus pandemic, will be over within a good week and the end of the Masters meeting at the London Masters. Number 18 in the ATP ranking, the 35-year-old Vaudois will not be part of the party between the eight best players of the season at the O2 Arena. A look back at its year 2020 in five key dates.

Sick but survivor of the first week at the Australian Open after his victories against Dzumhur, Seppi and Isner, Wawrinka has an appointment with Daniil Medvedev, the man who blocked his way at the US Open four months more early. Led 2 sets to 1, the Vaudois enters for an hour in levitation, in this trance which made him a triple winner in Grand Slam. Winner of the Russian in five rounds, he will confess that day to having played his “best match” since his return after his knee surgery. But like Roland-Garros 2019 in the spring (after his jewel against Tsitsipas) or the US Open in September (after having released Djokovic), “SW” does not confirm in the next round, in the quarterfinals, against to the metronome Sascha Zverev.

Finished the “StanPairo”, his Instagram lives sprinkled with learned cocktails which he has the secret with his friend on the circuit, the Frenchman Benoît Paire. To relaunch himself after a confinement spent at home, in the canton of Vaud, and several months without competition, Stan Wawrinka chose the Czech Republic and Prague as his first destination to win matches there and thus build up confidence on clay before the big fall meeting, Roland-Garros. Several times winner in three sets, the Swiss lifted a trophy, something that had not happened to him for a very long time – it still dates from the Geneva Open in 2017. A title certainly gleaned in the Challenger category, but my faith always good for the moral.

A month later, a short week before the start of Roland-Garros, the announcement had the effect of a small bomb on the circuit. On his social networks, Stan Wawrinka announces his separation from the coach who helped him rise to the top of world tennis, the Swedish Magnus Norman. Under the leadership of this former player, the native of St-Barthélémy became both “Stan The Man” and “Stanimal” to win three Grand Slams (AO 2014, Roland-Garros 2015 and US Open 2016). All at the same time as the three monsters of the “Big Three”. “Winning these titles changed my life and and I could not have done it without him,” writes the Vaudois. After a first break between the two men in October 2017, it is the end of one of the most successful partnerships in modern tennis.

Defeated at the start of the Masters 1000 in Rome by the rising star of Italian tennis Lorenzo Musetti for his last tournament with Magnus Norman, Stan Wawrinka arrives at Roland-Garros flanked by Dani Vallverdu, the Swedish successor. Impressive mastery against Andy Murray in the first round, the Vaudois went on with brio against the German Dominik Köpfer. Long awaited, his shock in the round of 16 with Dominic Thiem will never take place. The fault of this imp by Hugo Gaston. Revelation of the Porte d’Auteuil tournament, the Frenchman and his science of cushioning completely thwart Wawrinka. “I’m disappointed to go out like this. I have the impression, even if he was very good, rather to have lost the match by giving it to him, ”he admitted afterwards.

Able to bow from the start in Vienna against the Chilean Cristian Garin as well as to reverse the revelation of the season Andrey Rublev at Paris-Bercy, it is a Stan Wawrinka connected to alternating current who falls in the quarterfinals against Sascha Zverev in the French capital. Not enough to prevent him from dreaming of a great year 2021. “I am nearing the end of my career, but I still hope to finish in style, he said in the heart of his Parisian week. One last time, I would like to push my limits again, make the sacrifices it takes to get back to the top, and that’s what I’ll try to do with Pierre. (Paganini) and Dani (Vallverdu) to prepare as well as possible for next year. ”

And thus treat himself to his “last dance”, as his great friend Kev Adams would say.