I always felt that Wawrinka chokes at the pearly gates. He works all the five setters only to lose
and being denied entry inside the golden gates of the slams. Case in point being his
epic battles with Djokovic at Us Open
and Australian Open last, year. A year
and a tattoo -Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again.
Fail Better- later, Wawrinka has announced his arrival on the big stage and
demanded attention. The back hand that demonstrates elegance of a ballerina and
the lethality of a knife made of German Solingen steel. I thought Wawrinka will fall at the Djokovic
hurdle and the first set Stan lost only served to fuel my anxiety- 2-6. Thereafter he won the next two sets, lost the
fourth set and I felt the match as well because experience tells me that
anything that stretched beyond three sets against Djokovic is out the opponent’s
bag and into Novak’s. Except of course
if he is playing Rafa. And the decider is always at the fag end of the game
when it is a question of who blinks first.
But once you blink, then there is no creeping back out of that hole as
today’s quarter finals proved.
Both were evenly poised till the 7th game of the
final set. Stan lead with seven games to
six. Djokovic served to level at seven games each. Wawrinka served in the 15th game
and held to lead at eight games.
Djokovic was now serving to stay in the match. He took his time to serve, bounced the ball
at least 12 times, that clearly was a sign that something had changed. I think Novak fired an ace and then lost the
first serve but managed to score a 15-30.
Then Wawrinka leveled score at 30-30 and suddenly it looked like Stan
can make it after all. And he did win
the next two points to defeat Djokovic in the 5-set epic at the Australian
Open. I felt that whatever was going on inside Djokovic’s heat during the dying
moments of the match which was when the score was 30-30, ultimately lost him the
match. It is a break from the past where
Djokovic has literally climbed out of the coffin, dusted the soil off his
clothes and resurrected himself to stay in the match and wrestle it away from
his opponent.
This time however it was a different story. The man with that perfect hyperbola of a
backhand had won. I might go so far as
to equate it with the Beckham Bender.
Now the Swiss meets Berdych in the semifinals. Berdych is another dangerous player but has
languished in rankings albeit of the top ten variety. Keeping him company is Del Po, Tsonga,
Federer, Gasquet and Wawrinka. Gasquet
and Wawrinka have been recent entrants in the top 10 club as is Federer! As he
won the the last set and the match, he smiled, truly the happy smile of a
person who knows what he has achieved. He kept smiling and said “I am really,
really, really, really, really happy” and I guess that says it all. Stan admitted that when Novak plays well,
Djokovic is a better player than himself. I interpret that as -Novak plays that level of tennis 'consistently' whereas Stan's brand of tennis is 'inspired' or the superb tennis happens in bursts. But whatever it was in the past, something has changed in Stan's play and demeanour.
And now time for a
long, long ice bath where he might contemplate the next player- Tomas Berdych.
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