By Chris Oddo | Sunday, November 23, 2014

 

Roger Federer won his first Davis Cup on Sunday, but it was Stan Wawrinka's rise to elite status that opened the door.

Photo Source: Getty
 

Make no mistake about it: when the greatest tennis player of all-time wins the Davis Cup for the first time, clinching the tie with an effortless, operatic performance, just days after being relegated to the bed with a testy back (and an even testier wife, we found out), the spotlight—and credit—will most certainly go to him.

More Davis Cup: Federer, Swiss Clinch First Ever Davis Cup Title

And well it should, but let’s not forget that big bruiser of a man who, in many ways, made Roger Federer’s latest resume-building episode possible. Were it not for Stan Wawrinka’s wild ramble to elite status that saw him claim his first major title in Melbourne this January and announce himself to the world as a tour-de-force to be reckoned with, Federer might have contented himself with his perennial quest for major titles and the No. 1 ranking and again eschewed the Davis Cup in 2014.

Good thing he didn’t.

For many years Federer seemed to treat Davis Cup as an aside rather than a passion, while Wawrinka took the opposite view. Wawrinka became the workhorse of the squad, and though he relinquished that role willingly to Federer this season, he was still the heart and soul of the Swiss operation. From 2008 to 2013 Wawrinka played in ten ties to Federer’s six. Nothing here is damning for Federer, but it clearly shows that Wawrinka had bought a one-way ticket on the Davis Cup express without ever worrying when it would arrive at the station, and should be commended for his patriotism and dedication to Davis Cup not just as a dalliance but as a lifeblood.

Wawrinka was relegated to the competition’s lower tier on many occasions, and forced to carry a punchless Swiss team on many long Davis Cup weekends in many non-glamorous venues, but he always seemed to understand the truth: That Federer was off winning and going deep in so many majors that his schedule simply didn’t allow for the same dogged commitment. He didn’t complain or curse his fate, he just answered the bell for his country, whether Federer was in or not, and brought whatever was in his tank to the tie.

This year, after undergoing a renaissance that the tennis world is well aware of, Wawrinka’s form piqued the interest of Federer. With Federer’s new coach, Stefan Edberg, urging Federer to play more rather than less in order to stay sharp, the Swiss maestro saw and went after the perfect opportunity and fully committed to joining forces with Wawrinka for what would eventually become a run for the ages.

2014 created the perfect maelstrom in the minds and hearts of the Swiss. And with Roger and Stan in hot pursuit of the title for the first time in a decade, the cachet of Davis Cup certainly did not suffer. Federer, turning back the clock with new racquet, healthy back (or so we thought) and a new desire to not only pad his ridiculous legacy, but to also honor the hard work of his compatriots (not just Stan but also Severin Luthi, the team’s cool, calculated captain and atomic rift-defuser) was finally all-in. Wawrinka, with newfound boldness and belief, only sweetened the pot.

Everything about the Swiss Davis Cup team was perfect this season, even the turmoil. In the beginning Wawrinka seemed overwhelmed by what was transpiring. He was the Australian Open champion and the No. 1 Swiss, Federer was on board, and the Davis Cup draw had been blown wide open by the lack of participation of key players (sadly, a recurring Davis Cup theme). With that opportunity came expectations, and, for Wawrinka, a heaping dose of nerves.

Switzerland beat a Novak Djokovic-less Serbian team in February on the same weekend that a Rafael Nadal-less Spanish team was ousted, before downing the Kazakhs at home in April.

Wawrinka was so-so in Belgrade and downright doggish against Kazakhstan, but despite Stan’s nervous tremblings, as the year went on Switzerland found itself with only hard-court allergic Italy between themselves and a first Davis Cup final in 22 years.

Meanwhile, Federer used the extra matches to fine tune his game so nicely that he came within a whisker of winning Wimbledon and, while heading down the stretch, had a very good chance of becoming the ATP’s oldest No. 1 in history.

But the long road to the title was not without complications. By mid-summer Wawrinka was in a tailspin. Ennui had taken him over. He played lackluster tennis and limped into the World Tour Finals, a man desperately in need of a second wind. Where was the Stanimal? we wondered.

Oh, he was right where he needed to be.

Here’s where the story becomes all the more riveting and tailor-made for “Tennisography:” Wawrinka found his mojo and went into beast mode in London. Crash! Bam! Bang! and suddenly we had an all-Swiss semifinal at the World Tour Finals that ended with Federer’s season in jeopardy due to a fresh back injury and the Swiss Davis Cup team in turmoil due to Federer’s wife, the tried-and-true giver of twins, Mirka, calling Stan a “crybaby” for all the nosy world to hear.

Has a greater, more demented Davis Cup fairytale ever been written? We struggle to believe there has.

That element of weirdness and tension must have, in a strange, fortuitous way, been exactly what the Swiss team needed. Though none of the “boys” (as Fed likes to call them) will ever elaborate on this, did it not seem that Mirka’s off-the-cuff remarks and the scandal that ensued served a doubly important role as tension-breaker and bond-solidifier heading into the weekend? As goofy and tabloid-ready as it all was, was it not perhaps true that the possibility of losing a friendship made the possibility of losing the Davis Cup final meaningless in the incident’s aftermath for Roger and Stan?

With pressure building for both Federer and Wawrinka because of the magnitude of the event, the distraction that Mirka provided the team might have been one of the reasons that things went so swimmingly in Lille.

But let us circle back to Wawrinka, because Federer is Federer and his legacy needs no support to be held aloft—it floats skyward on its own, above all others (at least for now): Beast that he is, Wawrinka shouldered the load on Friday, crushing Tsonga in his best Davis Cup performance of the entire season on a day that saw Federer get absolutely demolished by Gael Monfils. Had Wawrinka not saved the best Davis Cup performance of his career for the tie’s opening rubber on Friday, Swiss spirits may have been too low heading into Saturday’s all-important doubles tie.

As it was, Stan kept them in there, and, as he has always done throughout the years, he bought Roger more time. They would come together on Saturday, Federer a different man physically and Wawrinka a better doubles partner than he had been in a long time, to crush Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet to take command of the final.

The table had been set for Federer at this point, and what he did today in dismantling Richard Gasquet will forever be remembered as the moment when Federer’s gaudy list of tennis accomplishments became ever more well-rounded.

But were it not for Stan, trusty, beastly, off-beat and oft-fragile Stan, the time for Federer may not have ever been right.

You won’t see Stan Wawrinka on the front page of a lot of newspapers tomorrow—that space will be reserved for Roger—but in the hearts of true tennis fans who watched this season and Davis Cup campaign unfold, there will always be a space for the grit and fortitude of Stan Wawrinka, the man who opened the door for Roger to go through.