By Chris Oddo | Friday, November 7, 2014

 

Stan Wawrinka has lost four of five matches heading into the World Tour Finals, but he's earned the right to compete with the best of the ATP's best in London.

Photo Source: Corleve

Does it not seem like centuries ago that Stan Wawrinka won his maiden Grand Slam and promptly rose to No. 3 in the ATP’s rankings to become the—gulp—first player other than Roger Federer to hold Switzerland’s No. 1 ranking since 2001? Remember when?

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Stan Wawrinka’s sudden rise to glory took him close to the top of the rankings and, although it was well-deserved and certainly a long-time coming for the extremely talented, powerful and resilient Swiss, it also took Wawrinka to a new vantage point—one that clearly made him swallow hard and wonder if he belonged or even wanted to view life from the top of the ATP tower.

Wawrinka’s rise to prominence was a welcome storyline in 2014, and though he had great difficulty playing the mighty, swashbuckling brand of tennis that brought him to the pinnacle of the sport in January for most of the rest of the season, Wawrinka did manage a mammoth title in Monte-Carlo, taking down Roger Federer in the final.

Though he may have seemed lost in the aftermath at times, this was, by no means a lost year for Wawrinka. In fact, it is one that will forever by looked upon fondly by Wawrinka and his fans. It was a dream come true, a fairy tale, but there is still work to be done for Wawrinka if he is to make the year complete.

The 29-year-old Swiss has kept it together well enough to earn his spot at the ATP’s year-end championships for the second consecutive year—nothing to scoff at, mind you—and put himself in a position to earn a prize that, to him, is every bit as coveted as the major title that he won in January.

Which prize? Well, we're not talking about the World Tour Finals, silly. For Wawrinka, the prize is Davis Cup, a crown that he has pined for nearly every season of his tennis career, and, now with Roger Federer on board and the Swiss into their first-ever Davis Cup final, Wawrinka’s long-sought-after mission could be accomplished in three week’s time—if he could only put the scattered pieces of his otherworldly game back together in time for the late November showdown with the French in Lille, France.

To look beyond London to a couple of clay-court matches in late November may seem silly to some, but for Wawrinka, a downplaying of the prestigious event that he is about to compete in might be what once again sets his game free.

One way for Wawrinka to achieve that essential, unhinged freedom is to get some high-stakes wins under his belt in London. Is that a stretch for someone that owns 6-1 record against the ATP’s top ten this season? Well, it shouldn’t be, but somehow, at the moment, it feels like it will be for Wawrinka.

At times this season, it just hasn’t felt like Wawrinka is comfortable being an elite player. Clearly, he’s proven that he’s capable of sublime and at times invincible tennis, but along the road this year Wawrinka seems to have flipped the script on himself, going from a “let’s-get-in-their-face-and-prove-how-good-I-can-be” mindset to an “oh-my-god-am-I-really-as-good-as-people-think-I-am?” attitude.

To have the type of success in London necessary to springboard one more sublime performance in the Davis Cup final, Wawrinka will have to remember how beastly he can be on a tennis court. He’ll have to grip and rip that daunted backhand and make his opponents defend. He’ll have to make decisions instinctively and without hesitation, playing the game the way he was meant to play it rather than how he feels he’s expected to play it.

Right now the battle for Wawrinka is a mental one. He approaches this year’s World Tour Finals with the luxury of knowing that it is not the end-all event that it is for some. He’s lost four of five matches since defeating Fabio Fognini in Davis Cup play in Geneva, and expectations are low. Now is the perfect time to crouch down in the weeds and plan his final ambush of 2014. The talent is there, the power is there, the finesse is there. If the psychology joins, 2014 should end on a very high note for Stan Wawrinka.