Over 11 years ago, a hopeful crowd at Roland Garros waited for a new champion.The previous king of clay, Rafael Nadal, who had won nine times, was defeated in the quarterfinals.The player who beat him, Novak Djokovic, would take over as the new champion.
Stan Wawrinka surprised Djokovic in a thrilling French Open 2015 final.
Djokovic was the top-ranked player in the world, having already won two of the last three major tournaments.All he needed to achieve a career Grand Slam was the French Open.With a record of 28 straight wins, he was the clear favorite to win on a sunny day in June 2015.After finally beating Nadal at Roland Garros, who had beaten him six times before, Djokovic reached the finish line that had seemed impossible for so long.
But instead, Djokovic faced one of the best performances ever in a men’s Grand Slam final.
The best player in the world was pushed aside by Stan Wawrinka, who gave a brilliant display in what might be the ugliest shorts ever worn on a tennis court.
Farewell: A Legendary Roland Garros 2015 Performance by Stan Wawrinka.
Wawrinka, who is 41 years old, played his final competitive match this week in Basel, Switzerland.He has won three Grand Slam titles, the Davis Cup, and an Olympic gold in doubles.However, this match marked the peak of his career.Except for Djokovic’s performance against Nadal in 2021 and many other examples from Nadal, this was the best performance by any male player at Roland Garros in the modern era.
Wawrinka hit 60 winners compared to Djokovic’s 30, and made only four more unforced errors than Djokovic: 45 to 41.
He won 76 percent of his first-serve points against the best returner in the sport, who that year was at his peak, winning 93 percent of his matches in 2015.The French Open final was the only major match Djokovic lost that year.
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The loss against someone playing such brave tennis is why Wawrinka’s win still feels special.Fans of sports usually love upsets like this, where courage pays off, but it doesn’t happen very often.Usually, the underdog can’t keep going for long.
Not Wawrinka, who was called “diesel” by his Swiss friend Roger Federer because he always seemed to get more powerful as a match went on.
Wawrinka beat Djokovic in Paris, and then again in the U.S.Open final the next year, even after losing the first set.Only twice in his 37 major finals has Djokovic won the first set but still lost the match.
Stan Wawrinka’s Unforgettable of His Life Match
Wawrinka called it the “match of my life” in his on-court interview, and even ten years later, he still feels that way.
He said in a video interview from Roland Garros last year, where he was still playing at the age of 40, “If you look at all the things like it being the French Open final, with Novak Djokovic, who was number one in the world, and had won almost 30 matches in a row, and playing the way I played for more than three hours, yes, probably.”
Wawrinka was a giant-killer, but only on a few very special occasions.
He beat the defending champion Djokovic at the 2014 Australian Open, and then beat Nadal, who got hurt early in the final.That run, along with his wins over Federer and Djokovic at Roland Garros in 2015, makes him the last person to beat two of the Big Three at the same Grand Slam.
