Published23. April 2024, 06:18
Tennis: Why Wawrinka is not in the Geneva Open list
The Vaudois does not appear on the tournament entry list, revealed this Tuesday morning. Explanations.
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Jeremy Santallo
Stan Wawrinka here serving during the Monte-Carlo tournament in early April.
AFP
Double winner at the end of the lake (2016 and 2017), Stan Wawrinka is not included in the list of 18 players expected to compete in the ninth edition of the Gonet Geneva Open (GGO) from May 18 to 25. This is first information. Should we therefore lose all hope of seeing the French-speaking superstar again set foot on the clay under the trees of the Parc des Eaux-Vives? Not so fast!
Not seeing “Stanimal” in the complete list, revealed Tuesday morning, follows from a certain logic. With his current ranking, i.e. 87th place in the world, the 39-year-old Vaudois could not decently enter the “cut”, located at rank 51. If he had registered, Wawrinka would have been plunged into a long list of substitutes and would have had to wait for around twenty withdrawals to enter the main draw directly. The other option? Go through the qualifications box. Not really worthy of a triple Grand Slam winner.
If he decides to return to the courts of TC Geneva, which he has not set foot on since 2019, “Stan The Man” intends to do so via one of the three wild cards issued by the organizers to big fish eliminated prematurely at the Masters 1000 in Rome, which takes place ten days before the GGO. Will Wawrinka go straight to Roland-Garros if he spends two or three rounds in the Italian capital? Does he plan to request an invitation, regardless of his Roman results, for a final (?) dance in Geneva? The future will tell.
What is certain is that the tournament will once again look great, with or without the stage location. In addition to Casper Ruud, Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul, Sebastian Baez, Nicolás Jarry (defending champion), Jan-Lennard Struff and Tallon Griekspoor have committed to joining the City of Calvin. Or 8 of the 25 best players in the world. Semi-finalist in 2017, the Japanese Kei Nishikori (34 years old, 358th) is also announced as a starter, with his protected ranking (48th). He returned from two years of hardship, weighed down by injuries.
2024-04-23 04:18:22
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