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 It has been 10 long years since anyone not named Roger Federer, Rafa
Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray had been able to boast of being
anything other than a one-hit wonder.
Even the one-hit wonders have been a rare commodity, with only Juan
Martin del Potro, Wawrinka and Marin Cilic bursting the Big Four's
bubble from May 2005 to May 2015.
On Sunday, Wawrinka finally broke rank as he added the French Open
trophy to a collection that already includes a Norman Brookes Cup
from the 2014 Australian Open.
So how did he pull off the impossible -- and that too by toppling
overwhelming favorite and world number one Djokovic in the final?
"I was relaxed on my backhand side and I could hit some wonderful
backhands," Wawrinka summed up simply.
It was a shot that left others purring.
"Wow! Just wow! I wanna play like that!" women's champion Serena
Williams exclaimed on twitter while former professional-turned-coach
Ivan Ljubicic added "Holly Swiss cow. That was something #bullets."
But no one had a better view of the backhand bullets than the man on
the opposite side of the net on Sunday.
"He has probably the best one‑handed backhand on the tour. No
question one of the best one‑handed backhands that I have seen in
tennis," Djokovic said after Wawrinka crushed his dream of
completing the career grand slam.
"Very powerful and can create a lot of spin, a lot of rotation on
the ball. He can hit it flat down the line. He can block the ball
very well. He has a short slice, long slice. He has a lot of variety
from that part of his baseline game."
The most spectacular of those eye-popping shots was unleashed
towards the end of the third set, with Wawrinka curling a backhand
down the line around the netpost to polish off one of the 60 winners
he produced on Sunday.
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So does Wawrinka think he can now bully his way to more major titles
and herald the disbanding of the Big Four?
"I'm not as strong as the Big 4. They are winning everything," said
the Swiss, who overcame the world's top two players to triumph in
Paris as he also beat fellow Swiss Federer in the quarters.
"But I'm strong enough to win some big title sometimes during the
years.
"I'm not as good as the Big 4. But I'm quite good enough to win two
grand slam tournaments. I can beat them in major tournaments, in a
semi-final, in a final. But once again, the Big 4 will always be the
Big 4."
As far as Federer was concerned though, there was only word needed
to describe Wawrinka on Sunday: "CHAMP".
(Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
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