US Open Men’s Final

Wawrinka Wins!

            I did not pick Stan Wawrinka to go far in this tournament because of his dodgy play this year.  It’s a funny thing, though, how fate can affect these big tournaments.  Stan was in trouble early in the Open, with a match point against him in the third round against Daniel Evans of Great Britain.  After surviving that, he faced a tough one against Kei Nishikori in the semis, but Nishikori had done Stan the favor of eliminating Andy Murray and exhausting himself in the process.  Nishikori started strong against Stan, but the previous match and heavy weather soon did him in.

            In the final Stan started slowly, but when serving at 2-5 down in the first set, he hit a couple of blistering winners to keep from going down two breaks.  He lost the set, but that eighth game seemed to wake him up.  Djokovic looked very sharp early on, but once Wawrinka got going Novak became a bit more uncertain with his play.  His uncertainty manifested as unforced errors off both sides and some tentative hitting.  The best example of the latter problem was at 0-3, 0-15 in the third set.  Djokovic got himself into a dominating position and had two fairly easy overheads.  He hit them tentatively, though, and Wawrinka was able to lob them back and eventually steal the point.  Novak also threw in a second serve at under 80 mph during the match.  The problems with Djokovic’ play have been apparent for several weeks.  How Novak’s game has changed is illustrated by a comment made by Patrick McEnroe during the match - that long rallies favored Wawrinka!  That is not a statement we would have heard 12 months ago, when Djokovic was playing the best baseline tennis I’ve ever seen.  As I’ve pointed out in a previous post, it is hard to withstand the demands of maintaining the number one ranking for periods of more than about 3 years.  Although he is still number one, of course, Novak is perhaps becoming weary of that pressure. 

            Some great points were played in this match.  My favorite was with Wawrinka serving, down 0-2 in points in the first set tiebreaker.  

            Although he lost the match, Djokovic demonstrated his mind-bloggling quickness and agility in this point and in many others throughout the match. 

            Grats to Stan Wawrinka for once again producing his best tennis when it matters most!