WOW-rinka Rips Up Roland Garros 

Anthony Smith 08/06/2015

It was a fine day for the famous old French Open, and what a match up it proved to be! Stan Wawrinka playing it out for a second grand-slam title against an opponent who will be remembered as one of the true greats, Novak Djokovic the world No.1 who was gunning to become only the 8th person in history to hit a career grand-slam by adding the French Open title, to the Australian, US and Wimbledon titles he’s already achieved.

Djokovic, a formidable force who already boasts 8 grand-slam singles titles, was the clear favourite coming up against the then world No.9 even if his semi against Andy Murray the day before had put him at a slight disadvantage. His older and less decorated opponent Wawrinka came into the final second best, having not reached a major semi-final until the US open in 2013 aged 28, and courtesy of some stunning displays at the 2014 Australian open he has one grand-slam title to his name… Yesterday however, he certainly proved he is maturing into the sport as he gets older, 12 years on since an 18 year old Wawrinka lifted the boy’s trophy and it couldn’t have been better deserved.

After Djokovic took the first set by storm winning 6-4, most thought this would be the year he did it after losing two finals in the past. From the start there was some breath taking rallies some lasting as long as 39 shots!! Djokovic’s lead wasn’t to last, in the tenth game of the second set Wawrinka broke serve to level the match, tipping his opponent over the edge and sending him into an outburst which resulted in a smashed up racket.. Now, now Novak.

Following an array of glorious shots from Wawrinka the third set ended in a similar fashion, with the match starting to tip in favour of the underdog who took a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 lead by the end of the set. You can’t help but feel that Djokovic wasn’t quite on point and his opponent was a man on a mission playing the game of his career, also there was that slight head loss at the end of the second which was potentially affecting his game.

At the start of the fourth Djokovic seemed to come back composed, if anything the most composed he’d been in the full match, and his response was to take the fourth set into a 3-0 lead. Djokovic roared like a champion and must have thought his opponent was out of steam. That is until he pulled out some spine breaking backhand winning shots to even the playing field. You could feel it in the air, it just wasn’t to be for Novak. The career grand-slam I’m sure will happen and he still deserves that world No.1 ranking, but the man of the moment was the underdog and after a career best match he certainly deserves the newly inherited world No.4 ranking and that famous old title.

Stan, take a bow…