Sunday 7 June 2015

'UNDER THE RADAR'

For the second year in a row at a major tournament Stan Wawrinka flies in to town, goes quietly about his business and leaves with a Grand Slam title. Stan's seeding of 8 at this year's French Open was exactly the same as the number put next to his name at the commencement of the 2014 Australian Open tournament which he also won.
The man from Switzerland with the most amazing one handed backhand you will ever see is a tennis professional who defies his ranking at times with his fearless hitting. Personally I gave him no chance against Djokovic as I felt that this year was Novak's year, he had served his time as runner up in Paris and was playing brilliant tennis.
He was however not counting on another 60 winners flowing from Stan's racket in the final just as Stan had done in his semi against Tsonga. That's a lot of winners hit in 8 sets of tennis to take the title. It would take some serious computer work to find a player who last hit 60 winners against Novak Djokovic, possibly the game's best retriever currently playing the game.
Stan also owns a very efficient service return and he won over 40 per cent of all returning points as well as 23 of 33 net points won. All of the statistics in this match mirror the win that Stan had against Nadal in 2014 at The Australian Open which also defied logic against a much more fancied opponent. In fact in just about every facet of this match Stan came out on top except for the unforced error count which was in favour of Novak who made 4 less at 41 to Stan's 45.
Novak Djokovic may never claim the title at Roland Garros just like the great Swede Bjorn Borg never won the US Open despite playing in four finals. Most great champions usually have one major they struggle to win and the French is one that Novak struggles with mentally more than anything else. That's perhaps because it's the only one he needs to complete the trophy cabinet and in that comes added pressure that can prevent a player from delivering their A game. Tennis is all in the head.
My apologies to Stan Wawrinka, the tennis professional from Switzerland who again flew in under the radar and took the title. I will give him more respect in the future when tipping players to win major championships.......

No comments:

Post a Comment