2015 French Open Final: Djokovic v. Wawrinka

[Kieran]

It was a sustained assault by Stan, one I was surprised he kept up for three sets, and at times the rallies were beyond brilliant, from both men. Nole resorted to a lot of dropshots, which is always a revealing ploy. It can mean a player is tired, or over-stressed and not knowing what to do, or just plain picking the wrong shot. He did it a helluva lot at one stage. He fought like a champ to hold serve at 3-3, but Stan did the same at 3-4, from 0-40. One of the most dramatic four set matches we've seen, I'd say, especially considering that none of the sets reached 5-5, or went to tiebreaks...

 

[brokenshoelace]

That's true, but it does matter. It tells us something about him. There's been a few of them finals where, once he got there, he didn't perform as well as he had in getting there. I'd include today in that...

Did you watch the match? If did, talk me through his performance.

I watched the match. He wasn't so good as he's been. If you think he was, good for you. He looked like he'd keep his foot on Stans throat after winning the first, but then he struggled on serve for the rest of the match. Great play by Stan - great opportunity missed by Nole. And we've seen him come up short in big finals before. Not saying anything new here, buddy.

By the way, Barbara Schett still looks hot... :heart:

This was way more about Stan than it was about Novak. Sometimes, there's not much you can do about a guy clobbering you off the court. It's happened to Nadal before plenty a times, and it also happened to Murray, Federer, and of course, Novak himself. It happens more than we'd like to admit. Tennis pros are really good. When they catch fire, suddenly the difference between a true all-time great and a perceived one hit wonder isn't that magnified, and indeed, the scales can be tipped quite significantly. Stan was doing what he did today to Nadal for one set at the AO anyway.

I knew Stan was capable of this level. I didn't know he was capable of doing it for 3 sets. This was literally one of the greatest individual slam final performances and should be appreciated as such. There's honestly not much Novak could realistically have done. You want to break rhythm maybe and throw in some garbage points with lots of slices and that sort of the cat and mouse stuff that Murray does, but A) that's not Novak's game and B) Stan really kills slices with his backhand so it's risky. The dude was firing backhand winners miles behind the baseline from pretty much any position.

You shake your head, you say too good, and you move on. I think sometimes we fall too much in love with the mental narratives and the over-analysis of matches when things don't go according to plan (ie the favorite doesn't win), but this was pretty straightforward.

 

[Carol]

Congrats Wawrinka!
Who would had thought that he went to reach the final and win? very surprising RG in al the ways :eyepop

 

[Srini]

Djokovic should have learnt from Federer, NEVER beat Rafa if you want to win French Open - RG Gods wont forgive you:cover

Novak lost the match because of the curse of RG

What a great match, Novak is too good to not have a career slam - he will do it at some point.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

stan prob goes back up world no4 when the new rank charts are out.

he lost in 1st rd last year, so that's a massive points gain.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Kieran Stans level today is probably the highest someone has played in a slam final over the last few years.

I don't quite agree with that. Novak himself has played better in the slam finals he HAS won, than Stan did today.

Stan played a great match. However, tennis is all about matchups. Stan is a bad matchup for Djokovic. Their last 4 matches, all went to 5 sets. So a redlining Stan would be harder for Djokovic to beat in general.

Secondly facing Nadal and Murray didn't help Djokovic obviously, since both of them are not off the bat aggressive players. Not the greatest prep for the final.

Commiserations to Nole fans. He deserves to win the French, and I'm sure one day he will. Meanwhile, he's still the favorite for Wimbledon.

Congrats to Stan. He's definitely the man. Good for tennis.

The Djokovic-Wawrinka h2h is 17-4 in favor of Novak. Hardly a bad match-up. If anything, it's the other way around. When a guy just hits winners from anywhere on the court though, he becomes a bad match-up for anyone.

 

[Federberg]

What's the h2h over the last 10 matches though? That might add a bit more colour

 

[tossip]

Stan da man!

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbPEgsyAsuw[/video]

 

[Fiero425]

Nole went into that cannon a few times and paid the price! That's where I faulted him the most; attack, but they were hapless attempts hit short and giving Stan a target! The BH is his bread and butter; always has been the case! What was on Nole's mind; or was he thinking at all? As I said, he didn't look comfortable out there, was kvetchin' about the court, and wasn't as effective breaking serve when he had opportunities! It was just a bad match on Nole's part when Stan saw and took chances that paid off! Congrats to Stan! He won't be a fave of mines even though I appreciate his game! He's being held back by his own mental weakness; should have won a lot more over the years but for the "Big 4!"

 

[Kieran]

The biggest surprise of the match for me was, I thought if Stan had a chance, he had to take the first set. When he lost that, I then expected Nole to loosen up and batter him harder.

It went actually the opposite: Nole didn't loosen up and go for the throat, and as the second set went on, Stan became more bold in his shot-making, to the extent that as the match progressed, a casual observer might mistake him for the player that a lot of people had prematurely crowned champ before the match (myself included) and Nole looked like the bedraggled challenger...

 

[britbox]

Novak will be disappointed for a day or two, then start thinking about grass.

He might be smoking it as we speak.

 

[rafanoy1992]

Congratulations to Stan Wawrinka for winning his 2nd Slam and playing perfect aggressive tennis to beat Novak Djokovic. He was aggressive and he took to Djokovic in the last three sets. His backhand down the line prove to be the big difference in this match.

As for Novak Djokovic, tough loss for him especially after winning the first set. He didn't play bad but he wasn't aggressive enough to win the title. Credit to Stan for making Djokovic very uncomfortable.

Now, the real question is will Djokovic win this title in the future? I said before that he I give him a four year span (2013-2016) to win this title. The reason is because he is turning 30 years old in 2017 so that means his body and mind won't be as sharp like the last couple of years. In addition, there's only so many chances you could get before you completely lose the opportunity.

 

[Front242]

The Nadal fans will be all calling in sick tomorrow I guess. Massive parties worldwide tonight. Tough loss for Novak though but what could he do? Stan was just way too good today and would've beaten anyone currently on tour. Onwards to Wimbledon where Novak will be extra motivated. To put things in perspective that shows just how hard it is to get a career slam.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

still can't believe stan won..djokovic must be a bit dazed.

 

[crystalfire]

im really not getting why any of you thought stan couldnt keep this up for 3 sets..like seriously have you not seen him do that for the past few AO matches against nole..like what am i missing here.

 

[kskate2]

The Nadal fans will be all calling in sick tomorrow I guess. Massive parties worldwide tonight. Tough loss for Novak though but what could he do? Stan was just way too good today and would've beaten anyone currently on tour. Onwards to Wimbledon where Novak will be extra motivated. To put things in perspective that shows just how hard it is to get a career slam.

Also proves how difficult it is to win consecutive grand slams. Who was the last man to win 2 consecutive slams? Was it Novak in 2011?

 

[Kieran]

The Nadal fans will be all calling in sick tomorrow I guess. Massive parties worldwide tonight. Tough loss for Novak though but what could he do? Stan was just way too good today and would've beaten anyone currently on tour. Onwards to Wimbledon where Novak will be extra motivated. To put things in perspective that shows just how hard it is to get a career slam.

Actually, we need to put a stop to this, making everything that happens in tennis be about Fedal. This match isn't about them. It's a stunningly executed upset - but Nole already beat Rafa, so he did better than our player did...

 

[rafanoy1992]

The Nadal fans will be all calling in sick tomorrow I guess. Massive parties worldwide tonight. Tough loss for Novak though but what could he do? Stan was just way too good today and would've beaten anyone currently on tour. Onwards to Wimbledon where Novak will be extra motivated. To put things in perspective that shows just how hard it is to get a career slam.

Also proves how difficult it is to win consecutive grand slams. Who was the last man to win 2 consecutive slams? Was it Novak in 2011?

Yup! He actually won three in a row (Wimbledon, US Open, and 2012 Australian Open).

 

[kskate2]

im really not getting why any of you thought stan couldnt keep this up for 3 sets..like seriously have you not seen him do that for the past few AO matches against nole..like what am i missing here.

He's incredibly inconsistent, thus his previous ranking. He usually drops his level at some point in the match and Novak has responded w/ a run of his own. That didn't happen today. Credit to Stan for getting back in the 4th set. He showed a resolve and determination that isn't always present throughout his matches.