The Return of Vintage Stanimal Could Spell Trouble for Big 3 in Melbourne

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The Return of Vintage Stanimal Could Spell Trouble for Big 3 in Melbourne

Are we seeing the return of the Stanimal at Melbourne Park this week? Time will tell, but Wawrinka has declared that he is playing—and feeling—better than he has since he made his return from double knee surgery in 2019. It has taken a while for the Swiss to find his form but anybody who saw him blow winners by the talented Daniil Medvedev in the fifth set knows that Wawrinka is a man very much rolling into form.

“I think last time I play so well was before the surgery,” Wawrinka confirmed in his press conference on Monday evening in Melbourne. “I think for sure, I feel since the off-season my level is really high. Physically I'm moving better than last year. So I'm improving. Yeah, I'm pretty sure last time I played that well was before the surgery.”

Medvedev admitted after the match that there wasn’t much he felt he could have done to derail Wawrinka.

“I could do some shots better,” he said, sounding like he wasn’t convinced it was actually the case. “But he played a great match. I wish him only luck for the rest of the tournament.” Wawrinka struck 71 winners in the match, including 18 in a dominant fifth set. “He was better than me in tennis,” Medvedev said. “He didn't make any mistakes, played good.”

Wawrinka will move on to face Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals, and if he wins he will move into the semifinals at a major for the first time since he played the Roland Garros final in 2017.

It’s an opportunity he relishes. He knows that at the age of 34, these opportunities aren’t going to be there forever.

“I know I still have only, I don't know how many, but not many years left,” Wawrinka said. “I want to do the maximum with it. I want to enjoy the maximum. I still believe it's a big chance to play tennis. It's my passion. It's something that I love to do.”

Wawrinka says he took some time at the end of the off-season to recalibrate his expectations and ask himself some difficult questions about where he wants to go with his tennis in 2020.

“I know that since the end of last year after the off-season, I took few days off for myself, thinking a little bit more about what I wanted for next year, the way I want it,” he said. “Those moments you need always to be honest with yourself. You cannot hide. You cannot lie to yourself. Then when you know what you want, you have to put the work on it. That's what I'm doing. Hopefully I can keep doing it the full year.”

If his last match at Melbourne is any indication, the Stanimal could become a househould name in the business end of Slams in 2020. And if anybody can stop the Big 3’s winning streak at the majors, which now stands at 12, why wouldn’t it be Wawrinka?

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