2010 US Open Press Conferences: Stanislas Wawrinka (Third Round)

Wawrinka Video Rating: 5 / 5

WAWRINKA HAS MIXED FEELINGS

Wawrinka will be left to reflect on his performance at the Australian Open this year with mixed feelings. He progressed into the third round of the tournament, beating Benoit Paire in the first round and completing a four set victory over Marcus Baghdatis before falling against the in-form Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. The Swiss competitor was seeded number 21 and in the end couldn’t quite improve on the predictions by making the last 16.

The number 10 seed proved too strong for Stanislas, and took the match in straight sets, although Wawrinka only relinquished the first set after a tie break in which he should have done better than to collect a measly two points. The match ended 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-4, and Wawrinka will look back on the match and perhaps point to the huge 49 unforced errors as the main reason for defeat, but credit must be given to Almagro who kept it tight and played some superb tennis in the second and third sets.

The Spaniard had to deal with the pressure of a terrible head-to-head record against the Swiss number 2, but this hardly seemed to register in his mind on the day, and he will go into future clashes with confidence high. Before the third round encounter the record was 5-1 in Wawrinka’s favour, and the two players also competed together as juniors, so they knew each other’s game well enough not to face any surprises.

Despite his average performance in Melbourne this year, Wawrinka’s career is slowly improving, and during the past 2 years he has reached an impressive 5 quarterfinals of major competitions along the way, as well as securing titles at Chennai and Casablanca at smaller events. He has also taken some big scalps, defeating the world number 6 Berdych last year in Chennai, and of course Andy Murray at the 2010 US Open. At 26 years of age he still lacks the breakthrough into the top ten, but still has plenty of time and the necessary talent to do so.

Pics of tennis stars when they were kids

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Wawrinka believes Federer is the Greatest

The 17^th ranked tennis player in the world Stanislas Wawrinka has stated that his fellow Swiss Roger Federer is by far the greatest ever player to have graced the tennis court and it would be very difficult for anyone to overtake the records of the classy Swiss Master. Although Wawrinka did have some decent results in the 2011 season, it was not good enough for him back home as the results were compared to the achievements of his compatriot, who according to Wawrinka, is miles ahead of everyone at the moment.

Wawrinka said that no matter where he went, his result were compared with what FedEx has achieved and that is very discomforting for the 26 year old, and has compared his situation with that of David Ferrer. According to Wawrinka, no matter what Ferrer does on court, he will still be overshadowed by the muscleman from Majorca and the same thing can be said about him as well and that is why, Stanislas Wawrinka says that he will never be given his due.

However, Wawrinka says that he has immense respect for his countryman, who has been his opponent on the court as well as his team mate in the Davis Cup and he believes that there is no model professional other than R-Fed. He said that he had the best season of his career by far in 2011 but he still had to be overshadowed by the legendary Swiss Master.

However, the best thing is that Stanislas Wawrinka does not hold any grudges against his fellow countryman and believes that he was just born in the wrong era. Wawrinka is currently gearing up for the Australian Open and a win here would take him to the top 10 of the world rankings for the first time in his career.

Stanislas Wawrinka

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Federer/ Stanislas Tennis Gold – Keep Holding On

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