June 2, 2015. A windy Tuesday for a Swiss championship. In the quarter-finals, Roger Federer, 33, world No. 3, faces his compatriot Stan Wawrinka, 30, 28th at ATP. The Bâlois starts off largely favorite against the Lausanne-based, who has already beaten him twice in Monte-Carlo, but never in Major. The audience of the Suzanne-Lenglen court has of course chosen its Helvetian…
However, the confrontation between the winner of the 2009 edition and the winner of the tournament… junior in 2003 will come to an end. In the swirling wind, Wawrinka makes his power speak and dominates the debates (6-4, 6-3, 7-6), as he never dominated the former world No. 1, with a break from the third game .
On the other side of the net, four break points for Federer, no convert. For the first time since 2002, the master does not manage the slightest break in a Grand Slam match. “The conditions were very difficult, but they were better for me than for Roger, loose Wawrinka, author of 43 winning points. Nobody likes to play in the wind, but I knew that if I could put a lot of weight in the ball, I could push Roger behind his line. It’s the best game of my life on earth. “
Federer “crushed”
On his second match point, Wawrinka, more skillful at the net than his rival (13/19 against 13/23) concludes with a forehand volley. Almost a crime of lese majesté. Federer confesses that he was “crushed”. “I’m glad he could have said that at least once in his life, laughs” Stan the Man “, who will have beaten all the members of the Big Four (with Nadal, Djokovic and Murray) in Grand Slam. These are good memories. It’s an incredible feeling to have been able to play like that against Roger, but I’m still a little surprised to have won in three sets… ”
In addition to the stinging defeat, Federer did not forget the aesthetic outrage of his younger brother, with whom he had finally won the Davis Cup a few months before. “He still gave me three sets of his terrible shorts,” he laughed in 2019, at the time of the Parisian reunion. This sort of white and red striped swimsuit on a gray background that alerted the fashion police and ended up on display at the Roland-Garros museum.
In his variegated outfit passed to posterity, Wawrinka then beats Tsonga in the semi-final and manages an exceptional final against Djokovic to lift his only Musketeers Cup. Since then, in seven attempts, he has failed to beat Federer.
