Poor Stan Wawrinka.  Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Stan Wawrinka played two epic matches this year and came up second.  In what most experts considered the best match of the Australian Open, Stan Wawrinka pushed Novak Djokovic to five sets.  He came out of the gates fast, but then had to hold on for dear life, eventually taking the fourth set tiebreak in style, before losing in a close fifth set.  Many had hoped, despite the loss, that Wawrinka would have a good year.

Wawrinka then played an epic Davis Cup doubles match which pitted Berdych and Rosol against Wawrinka and Chiudinelli.  Both teams were missing a key figure.  Roger Federer, of course, hardly ever plays Davis Cup at the World Group level.  He generally plays at the relegation playoff where only one win is needed to return back to World Group play.  Thus, he’s generally committed to one Davis Cup tie a year.

This has made Wawrinka the go-to guy for the Swiss team, but unlike other countries (most notably Spain, France, Serbia), there isn’t a good go-to third player.  With Radek Stepanek injured, the Czechs were in a similar situation with one very good player (Berdych) and then a backup crew ranked in the 70s or so.

The doubles became pivotal, as it often does, and that put Wawrinka and Berdych on court playing doubles against one another.  The match lasted a hair over 7 hours, with a double fault from Chiudinelli creating the break the Czechs needed to win.

Since then, Stan the Man, has had solid results, but not yet a tournament win.  Wawrinka went to South America to play in Buenos Aires, the one tournament Nadal skipped in his return to the “golden” swing of South and Central American tournaments.  There, he met David Ferrer in the finals.  Ferrer is perhaps the second best clay courter, if you combine his results with the number of matches he plays.  One could argue, of course, that Federer and Djokovic are better on clay than Ferrer, but they play their clay events sparingly.

Wawrinka had a shocking loss in the opening round of Acapulco to the talented Fabio Fognini, then made it to the fourth round at Indian Wells losing to Federer in three close sets.  He skipped Miami, and then lost to a resurgent Tommy Robredo on the clay at Casablanca.

Wawrinka finally made it to the finals of another tournament at Portugal (formerly the Estoril Open).  Wawrinka had a bye in the first round, then beat Albert Ramos, Gastao Elias (of Portugal), Carrano Busta (21 yr old from Spain) before reaching the finals.

There, he would face David Ferrer.  Ferrer struggled a bit with injury from that marathon match in Miami against Andy Murray where he came up cramping at the end.  Ferrer withdrew from Monte Carlo and was upset in the opening round of Barcelona by Tursunov, so Ferrer was eager to set his game straight again.

Ferrer got back to his winning ways in Portugal (he had taken a wildcard once he lost early in Barcelona), but would he have enough against Wawrinka?

The answer was no.  Wawrinka came out of the gates fast, breaking Ferrer early and often.  It’s intriguing to watch Wawrinka’s game and how it contrasts with Federer’s game.  Federer definitely has the better forehand and serve, as well as being a much more aggressive player in general.   Wawrinka, by contrast, has, to my mind, a better backhand.  Federer prefers to defend off that backhand.  He’s not interested in dictating play off that side, where Wawrinka has the kind of muscle and accuracy to do so.

In particular, Wawrinka sometimes looks like he’s doing drills off his backhand, where he hits a backhand down the line, up the middle, to a deep corner, to the sharp angle, as if he’s an oscillating fan sending shots from one side of the court to the other.  For my money, he may be the best one-handed backhand player in the game today.  Richard Gasquet may hit the one-hander harder, but I feel Wawrinka has a good combination of power and placement.

The second set was closer, as it generally is, and the players went to 4-all.  A long rally ensued, and a drop shot from Ferrer brought Wawrinka to the net.  Stan pushed the ball crosscourt, and Ferrer tried to dip a down-the-line backhand which Wawrinka just got a hold of for a drop volley crosscourt.  Wawrinka would eventually break and Ferrer would get in a mini-tantrum where it would appear he wanted to smash his racquet, then realizing that was bad behavior, he’d stop.   Wawrinka, who wasn’t broken the entire match then went to hold easily and claim his first title of the year.

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Tommy Haas has likewise been trying to get back to the top of his game.  He’s had a solid year.  He’s reached the finals of San Jose (losing to Raonic), the semis of Delray Beach (losing to Gulbis), the semis of Miami (losing to Ferrer), before finally reaching the finals at Munich where 3 of the 4 finalists were German (Haas, Kohlschreiber, and Brands) with Croatian, Ivan Dodig, as the sole non-German.

Haas reached the finals against Kohlschreiber and won 63 76.  An impressive result for a 35 year old who has spent a great deal of his career injured.