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Bionic Poster
He first turned pro way back in 2002 when he was just 17. In his first 11 years on tour, he won just 4 titles, all of them low ranked 250 events. While he was always recognised as a gifted player with a great serve and forehand and often hovered on the edge of a top 10 breakthrough, he was really never more than a gifted journeyman who had the ability to be dangerous now and again but who was never consistent enough to be a serious threat to the top players in the game.
Prior to 2014, his best showing on tour was reaching 2 Masters finals on clay: 2008 Rome, where he took Djokovic to 3 sets and 2013 Madrid where he lost in straight sets to Nadal.
Then 2014 turns out to be his 'annus mirabilis'. From having won just 5 small titles and reaching 2 Masters finals in nearly 12 years on tour and at the age of 29, an age when many players are beginning to wind down their careers, Wawrinka suddenly bursts onto the stage, consistently beats the top players including the world #1 and #2, and grabs 2 of the sport's biggest titles, a Slam and a Masters, all in the space of just 3 months!
Has any other player on tour ever spent more than a decade as a journeyman, more or less, and then suddenly turned into a beast, winning Slams and Masters and beating all the top players in the process? I can't think of any.
IMO Stan Wawrinka is a true one-off, a true enigma!
Prior to 2014, his best showing on tour was reaching 2 Masters finals on clay: 2008 Rome, where he took Djokovic to 3 sets and 2013 Madrid where he lost in straight sets to Nadal.
Then 2014 turns out to be his 'annus mirabilis'. From having won just 5 small titles and reaching 2 Masters finals in nearly 12 years on tour and at the age of 29, an age when many players are beginning to wind down their careers, Wawrinka suddenly bursts onto the stage, consistently beats the top players including the world #1 and #2, and grabs 2 of the sport's biggest titles, a Slam and a Masters, all in the space of just 3 months!
Has any other player on tour ever spent more than a decade as a journeyman, more or less, and then suddenly turned into a beast, winning Slams and Masters and beating all the top players in the process? I can't think of any.
IMO Stan Wawrinka is a true one-off, a true enigma!
